By Kurt Kober
Candidate for Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor Candidate Kurt Kober
No Wisconsinite should have to choose between paying for a doctor’s visit or feeding their family, and yet, it’s a choice too many families have to make. It’s a choice my mother was faced with when I was young. When I was in middle school my father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It wasn’t long after his diagnosis until he could no longer work driving his bus route, and it was up to my mother to provide for our family. I remember long nights listening to my parents as they tried to decide what expenses to cut in order to pay for his healthcare. No child should have to feel that struggle. We need to take health care off the table as a barrier to individual and community success in Wisconsin.
The first step in removing the barrier of healthcare is by protecting and expanding all of our public healthcare options. I will work directly with the new Democratic Governor to accept the Medicaid expansion dollars. This will ensure more families like mine can receive the services they need, no matter if it’s treatment for a medical illness, mental health issues, or substance abuse. We also must protect and expand BadgerCare. It should be available to every Wisconsinite who wants it, and for small business owners who need to provide healthcare to themselves and their employees. Programs like BadgerCare and Medicaid exist, and it’s up to our government to make sure they are accessible to everyone who needs them.
But healthcare doesn’t just mean medical services. Bringing quality healthcare across Wisconsin means investing in community wellness. This starts with the most basic need: clean water. How can we expect our families to thrive if they can’t trust the water coming out of their pipes? In a state bordered by two great lakes with over 15,000 lakes, clean water should be a given for residents in our state today and for generations to come. However, today over 70,000 homes in the City of Milwaukee have water contaminated with lead. We know the dangerous impacts this has on people’s health, and yet our governor is content with a tedious and inefficient program to try and curb this problem. It’s time for real plans to solve this problem now, not years from now. I’ve spent my career helping businesses, organizations, and nonprofits build plans to get things done. I’m ready to bring that experience to our government because we can’t afford to wait.
Accessible healthcare, from a clean environment to medical services, is critical to building successful communities across the state. I will never forget the struggle my mother went through to support my family while my father battled Multiple Sclerosis. It’s because of her hard work, and the support we received from critical programs like Social Security, that we were able to make it. As your lieutenant governor, I will fight to make sure every family in Wisconsin has the same opportunities.