2025-26 Session Highlights
Addressing Healthcare Affordability
Senator Felzkowski focused intensely on addressing healthcare affordability in Wisconsin this legislative session. An important provision that she championed was hospital price transparency. With hospital price transparency provisions in place, you know exactly what procedures will cost before you go to the doctor, allowing you to shop around as different hospitals offer the same procedures at different prices. Healthcare is the only thing you don’t know the cost of before you buy it, and this needs to change.
Two important women’s health provisions were also enacted into law this session: extended postpartum coverage for new moms, and required coverage for enhanced breast cancer screenings. Extended postpartum coverage aligns a new mom’s coverage with her baby’s coverage, facilitating better health outcomes for both. Requiring insurance companies to provide enhanced breast cancer screenings gives women with dense breast tissue access to critical testing to catch cancer early and ultimately save lives.
Several initiatives to support rural healthcare were also enacted this session, including:
- Allowing advanced practice registered nurses to practice to the full extent of their training, reducing wait times and increasing access to healthcare across the state.
- Expanded remote pharmacy services to help keep local pharmacies open and prescriptions more affordable.
- A slew of new legislation to support rural EMS (keep reading for more details!).
And while a lot was accomplished this session, Senator Felzkowski will continue fighting hard for further reforms that will make big differences in the cost of healthcare, including pharmacy benefit manager reforms, increased requirements for information and cost sharing, and tax credits to incentivize businesses to provide create healthcare solutions to their employees.
The Forestry Revitalization Act
The Forestry Revitalization act, championed by Senator Felzkowski, will provide tax credits for a plant in the Northwoods to turn woody biomass into sustainable aviation fuel. It is the largest economic investment in Northern Wisconsin in state history.
The new facility is projected to have billions of dollars of impact on the Northwoods economy and will create thousands of direct jobs at the new plant. The project will also create and support an untold number of jobs in adjacent industries.
The demand for sustainable aviation fuel is growing globally. By 2050, the European Union will require 70% sustainable aviation fuel, and domestic airlines are phasing in requirements as well.
The new facility is planned to be built near Hayward. The economic impact will be widespread across the entire northern part of the state.
Support for EMS
Significant strides were made this session to support EMS services and volunteers:
- Legislation to provide reimbursement for the costs of initial EMS training classes taken at Wisconsin Technical Colleges.
- Financial support to the technical college system to ensure EMS classes operate, even if they are not at capacity, to make sure that classes are available to individuals who wish to become certified.
- Increased Medicaid rate for “Treat, No-Transport” EMS calls. This will be especially important in total areas, where EMS are usually the first call when an individual needs help.
- Protecting EMS providers by closing a loophole that was preventing individuals who threaten to cause bodily harm to EMS providers from being charged. Other healthcare professionals, such as nurses, already have these protections. EMS providers, who often deal with combatant, disoriented, and upset patients in hostile and sometimes dangerous environments, should be protected.
Protecting Wisconsin's Kids
All session, Senator Felzkowski and her colleagues worked hard to bolster protections for kids in Wisconsin.
Grooming a child was defined and criminalized in Wisconsin, and felony level penalties were established. Grooming is now clearly defined under state law, which gives prosecutors and law enforcement clear statutory authority to hold predators accountable and better protect children from sexual exploitation. Several cases have already been prosecuted under this new law.
Another new law requires each school board, private school governing body, and independent charter school governing board to adopt a policy on appropriate communication between employees or volunteers and students. These policies must be in place by the beginning of the 2026-27 school year and must specify appropriate content and methods of communication with students both during and outside school hours.
School districts are also now required to notify parents of alleged victims of sexual misconduct by a school staff member by the end of the day on which the school receives the report.
Lowering the Tax Burden
Although every single Senate Democrat voted against the recent bipartisan deal that would have lower taxes and put money back in your pockets, killing the deal, Legislative Republicans fought for and accomplished several major tax cuts throughout this session.
- The recent state budget reduced taxes by $1.5 billion and blocked over $3.6 billion in new taxes that Democrats proposed.
- The second income tax bracket (4.4%) was expanded to $67,300 (married, filing jointly). This translates to an average tax cut of $270 annually for families making more than this.
- Retirees will see the first $48,000 (married, filing jointly) of income exempt from state income tax for the first time. This applies individuals age 67 or older.
- Residential electricity and natural gas were completely eliminated from sales and use taxes.
- The adoption expenses deduction was tripled, going from $5,000 to $15,000.
- An individual income tax subtraction was created for theft losses.