November 9, 2022 at 3:52 p.m.
Felzkowski visits Minocqua
Preparing for the next legislative session in Madison, healthcare and aid for local governments a focus
Felzkowski visits Minocqua
By Trevor Greene-
Before she was elected to the senate, Felzkowski served four terms as the representative in 35th Assembly District.
Her background includes operating an insurance agency and her husband owning a construction business at one time. Felzkowski said they were also mink farmers, too.
Her visit to Minocqua was in preparation for the legislature's upcoming session. She said her biggest concerns this year are healthcare and funding for local governments.
It wasn't a campaign stop for Felzkowski, who succeeded Tom Tiffany as state senator for Wisconsin's 12th District; should she choose to run, she'll run for re-election in 2024.
Lack of first responders
Low volunteer turnout of first responders is a national issue, not just a Wisconsin one.
Nearly all volunteer-based stations in Oneida and Vilas counties are affected by this issue and Felzkowski said state legislators have already been discussing the matter.
She said it will be a major focus for policy makers this next year.
Counties can levy for fire and emergency medical services (EMS), Felzkowski noted, but towns cannot, even though towns are statutorily required to provide those services and counties are not.
"We know that's ridiculous," she said. "And we're working on taking care of that. We have not added regulations at the state level, but there have been federal issues that have come down that supersede us."
Felzkowski and other legislators from rural areas and both political parties tried to push new legislation which would allow ambulances to only require one paramedic, whereas current law requires two. It was "shot down" though, she said.
She mentioned how there's a big push right now for the entire state to switch to full time staffing models in place of volunteer-based ones.
"That would be a huge cost to a lot of areas," she said. "And I think our volunteers have done a really good job. We've done things like try to give tax credits to fire and EMS to help with their training, but the training requirements that are coming down that we're being saddled with are federal. And they're wrong."
Federal requirements are excessive, Felzkowski believes.
She also noted legislation passed by the state legislature she and Rep. Amy Loudenbeck (R-Clinton) introduced last session.
It's an assessment against ambulance providers, she explained, which "then goes into a pot and pulls down all this extra federal money."
The policy helps private ambulance services more than municipal services, she admitted, but still provides some funding.
"I just had a conversation with the town of Lincoln ... their ambulance assessment from Aspirus went up $65,000 for this small township. They have to pay it, but that means they have $10,000 left for their roads. We know it's an issue ... we're aware of the issue but we just don't have the solutions yet."
Voter fraud and election security
Felzkowski started talking about the topic by saying 18 pieces of legislation related to election security and voter fraud were vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.
The legislative audit bureau - which audited the state's election process - approved those policies too, she said.
"We've seen very little prosecution of election fraud in the state of Wisconsin," Felzkowski said, saying there is evidence showing fraud had been committed. "I was with the clerks from Brown County and the city of Green Bay that stepped down prior to the election because they said the election in Green Bay was handled fraudulently."
Felzkowski said the clerks told her they were "taken out of the mix" and an unelected person oversaw the city's election. That person was apparently paid money by Facebook parent company owner Mark Zuckerberg, she said, adding that Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich was also involved.
"We also know that there was election fraud in the city of Kenosha, in our nursing homes," she said.
Felzkowski said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul did nothing about it.
Housing and employment
The Minocqua town board has formed an ad hoc committee to collect data and understand the labor and housing issue as best it can to see if there are any solutions.
Felzkowski said according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, one third of the cost in building a single family home comes from federal regulation.
"Can you bring that regulation down?" she asked. "And we had those conversations. I'm not saying deregulate, because we need to make sure homes are built safely, but is there a happy medium there?"
Another concern Felzkowski mentioned was cost per square footage to build.
Being in the business of insurance her whole life, the first-term senator said a rating factor used by agents shows a "basic builders grade home" is 65% more expensive to build in the 12th district than it is anywhere else in the nation.
Felzkowski said she and her husband have been on a three year waiting list for a contractor in Tomahawk after they sold their home three-and-a-half years ago.
"We've been living in a mobile home," she said. "It's nice, but we want to build our home."
Healthcare
Healthcare is high on Felzkowski's list and will be a major focus for her this upcoming session.
"We've sat down with a lot of employers," she said. "They've managed to maneuver through the healthcare system and they can still provide fairly good health insurance for their employees. A lot of them are doing that by offering direct primary care by starting their own clinics and having a nurse practitioner in there."
The idea to have an in-house clinic is a good one, Felzkowski believes, adding that she's "seen a lot of employers do a lot of creative things."
Eighty percent of Wisconsin is insured on self funded or third-party administrative groups, she said.
"But what we're seeing with small employers is the cost of offering healthcare is almost driving them right out of business," she said. "Wisconsin has the fourth highest medical costs in the nation ... the average hospital charges 300% of the Medicare rate."
Felzkowski said a shortage of healthcare professionals is part of the problem too.
There was a worker shortage in the healthcare field before the coronavirus pandemic, she said, but a lot of things since then have exacerbated that shortage.
"So we're doing things around rural Wisconsin," Felzkowski said. "Like loan forgiveness. If you're a doctor in a small rural community we help you with your school loans. We do that for teachers, we do that for numerous professions to try to get people to locate into our under served areas."
More transparency with the costs of medical care is needed, too, she said. There was a federal policy which was put in place by former President Donald Trump, but it "had no teeth."
Felzkowski said hospitals were willing to pay the fines for not sharing their costs with the public.
Currently, she said she's working with an anesthesiologist from Texas because Texas did "put teeth" in its policy.
"Hospitals can't just pay their fines and walk away," she said. "And (what we're also) doing is if a hospital is non-compliant with their transparency they cannot go after you and put you in bankruptcy court ... for unpaid hospital bills. Now that's a piece of legislation that we will be introducing. What we introduce is rarely the final product, but I'm sure there's gonna be compromises on that."
Felzkowski added there will be legislation reworked to also help small independent pharmacies and limit high drug costs.
"I was going down there to work on forestry issues, and a lot of issues dealing with the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) in northern Wisconsin, that (and taxation) were my primary focuses when I got elected," she said. "I did not know I was gonna get involved in healthcare and be the person in the senate who is developing most of our healthcare legislation to start out. So it's like each one of us kind of has an idea or a set of ideas and that's there primary focus. And then you gotta know a little bit about everything. Mine seems to be the healthcare world."
Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].
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