WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Defend America Action and Protect Our Care Wisconsin are releasing a new report highlighting the devastating health care crisis Donald Trump and Republicans have created in Wisconsin. The report, first published by The Dr. Kristin Lyerly Show, shows that after Trump and Republicans killed critical Affordable Care Act tax credits, premiums rose an average of 148% for over 270,000 Wisconsinites, with around 25,000 on Medicaid or the ACA losing or dropping their health care coverage entirely.

Defend America Action also hosted a press call this morning with Wisconsin State Senator Brad Pfaff, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, and Protect Our Care Wisconsin’s Joe Zepecki to discuss Trump’s health care crisis and its consequences for Wisconsinites.

“We have seen tax cuts for the millionaires and the billionaires, health care costs continue to rise, and access is being denied,” said Wisconsin State Senator Brad Pfaff. “We deserve better, as Wisconsinites, those people that work hard here in Western Wisconsin, we deserve to have a member of Congress and leaders in Washington, D.C. that will work for us.”

“What’s happening here is not unique to Wisconsin. It is a preview of what is coming for every state in the US because of the Trump regime’s cuts to Medicaid and the ACA, and this is the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly. “I have literally taken care of moms with high-risk pregnancies who deliver their babies on the side of the road, not because they didn’t want a hospital, but because the closest hospital shut down and the next closest hospital wasn’t close enough.”

“We didn’t get here by accident. This was a choice made by Congressman Tom Tiffany, Congressman Derrick Van Orden, Congressman Bryan Steil – all of them. They were warned that costs would go up, access would go down, and they took the vote anyways,” said Protect Our Care Wisconsin’s Joe Zepecki. “Why did they do it? They chose what they chose so that massive giveaways to massive corporations and billionaires could be called ‘paid for.’”

A recording of the press call is available here. Defend America Action and Protect Our Care Wisconsin’s new health care report is available here.