I'm state senator, Kel DeRoyce,
and I'm running for governor to
raise wages, lower costs,
have the best public schools in the
nation, and to protect our rights
and freedoms.
I'm here today to talk about my
plan for health care in Wisconsin,
my vision, to bring us closer
to universal, affordable health
care coverage for every single
Wisconsinite.
As I travel around the state, I
hear about a lot of different
issues. But one thing that comes up
every single time is the
way in which So many Wisconsinites
do not have access to affordable
healthcare.
Even if they do have insurance, it
costs way too much and
the premiums are skyrocketing.
It doesn't cover what it should.
People and providers are spending
time arguing with insurance
companies and.
We cannot continue like this.
Our country spends more per capita
than any other country on
healthcare, and yet we have some
of the worst outcomes in the world,
right, in terms of our longevity,
our level of illness,
our infant and maternal mortality
rates.
We're not getting what we're paying
for.
My plan is very different than what
my friends in this Democratic
primary are offering because it
takes something that is actually
working well in healthcare in
Wisconsin.
And that's the coverage that I
receive as a state employee.
I have high quality,
comprehensive insurance.
We have several nonprofit
provider-owned insurers
that provide health coverage
to state employees, and
there are also some private
insurance companies as well.
But it is very predictable
because we are part of a really
large pool.
And what that means is I know
that if my kid gets sick, I
can take my kid to the doctor.
And it's not gonna result
in a huge bill.
I know that if I were to have a
bad diagnosis or be in a car
accident, that it's gonna bankrupt
my family.
And that kind of health security is
something that every single
Wisconsinite, no matter who you are,
where you're from, or who you
work for, absolutely deserves.
My plan, Keldacare,
will allow anyone in Wisconsin,
an individual or an employer,
to buy in at cost.
To the very same coverage that state
employees get.
Now, to be clear, this is not a
taxpayer funded plan,
right? You will have to pay the
cost.
And if you're an employer,
you're probably gonna find that
being a part of the state plan is
cheaper, provides better coverage,
and takes away from that time
tax of having to constantly
be looking for more
affordable health insurance options.
I talked to Kyle, a teacher
up in Superior, Wisconsin, who said
that. This year,
their insurance premiums for
the school district were going up
38%.
38%. So guess what?
Not only is no teacher
in Superior gonna be getting a raise
this year, they'll all functionally
be getting pay cut.
I talked to an owner of a mid-size
manufacturing company in Merrill,
who said that it used to be
a matter of pride for her, that she
was able to cover the health
insurance costs, all the premium
costs for her employees.
And over the past 20 years.
That percentage that she's been able
to cover has gone down and down and
now she's looking at how
can I even offer coverage?
Maybe everyone's just gonna have to
go on the ACA.
This is a problem that we can solve
with public policy by
letting people buy in at cost.
And let me lay out some of the
benefits to taxpayers for this.
Number one, when you have a larger
pool, you can spread the
administrative costs of that program
over a broader number of people and
that will bring down the cost for
taxpayers.
Number two, a big reason
that premiums keep going up and up
and up in health insurance is
uncompensated and undercompensated
care, because people don't have
insurance or their insurance isn't
good enough to cover things.
And this is why I have a
friend who is an emergency room
doctor. She tells me every single
day there is somebody in the
emergency room who says, do I
really need to be here because I
don't think I can afford it?
That cost, that care
is being provided, but the cost is
not being warned.
By the uninsured patient, generally,
because they don't have the money.
If they had money, they'd have
insurance.
It is being borne by the
providers, the system, and all of us
who have private insurance,
and so that's going in to increase
our premiums.
When we expand access to coverage,
we can reduce that uncompensated
care and slow the
growth of premiums that we have
experienced.
Perhaps most importantly,
here we are in Milwaukee at a
federally qualified health center
throughout Wisconsin.
We have a severe provider shortage.
We have rural hospitals and clinics
closing their doors.
We have critical access hospitals
in jeopardy of closing and leaving
millions of Wisconsinites without
access to care that they need.
In large part, because of
uncompensated care.
My plan, because the
state health insurance plans
reimburse providers at
a reasonable rate, so
not less than the cost of care, but
the actual cost of providing the
care we can help keep those
critically provider doors
open for Wisconsinites in
communities like Milwaukee,
up in Ashland where I was this
weekend, throughout the state.
Now, this is not the only piece of
my healthcare plan. I also have
detailed plans for how we're gonna
invest in mental health and
behavioral health, how we gonna
protect access to reproductive
rights and reproductive freedom, so
that politicians are never between
you and your doctor, and how we can
lower the cost of prescription
drugs.
And increase the pipeline of
providers here in Wisconsin.
But the ad that my campaign
released today really
focuses on the fact that we
need affordable access to
high quality health insurance.
And that's what I'm gonna deliver
with Keldicare as governor.
I would be happy to take any
questions.
Senator Boyce, Republicans are
going after your latest ad,
saying that it escalates the
rhetoric by saying that the European
insurance companies are trying to
kill us.
What's your response to that?
Well, I would just say, look at the
data. You know, we're a state
that should have expanded badger
care and covered at least 80,000
more Wisconsinites over the last 15
years. I wonder how many
Wisconsinites in that time
who would have been eligible for the
expanded badger coverage are dead
because they did not have access to
that care.
I think about the women who
have died post-DOBS because
they were turned away and they had
to bleed out or go septic instead
of receiving access to abortion
care. I think about...
The substandard care that we have
been providing as a state to
women of color and babies of color
pre and postpartum because Robin
Voss was blocking the
extended coverage for postpart care
for low-income women.
There is a very, very real cost,
not just financial, but human,
when we deny people access to health
care. And that is why throughout my
political career I have been always
dedicated to getting more people
access. To high quality health care
and health insurance coverage every
single year.
But in the midst of political
violence that we've seen in
assassination attempts is saying
Republicans are trying to kill us
appropriately, which during a
campaign like this...
Well, I think the line is it's
almost like they're trying to kill
us, and this is language that I
have heard again and again from
patients around the state and from
the doctors who are trying
desperately to care for them and
saying, these patients
are not able to get the care.
They are dying because they don't
have access to it.
Do you think healthcare is the area
where you can stand out in what's
become a very jumbled democratic
primary?
I think health care is absolutely
top of mind for voters, both for
this primary election and for the
general. I think that there are many
areas where I stand apart
from my friends in this primary.
Health care is certainly one,
but I also think public education
is another one.
I am the candidate that has put a
stake in the ground and has a plan
to bring the private voucher
scheme that is diverting billions
of dollars from our public schools
into the pockets of unaccountable
privatizers to bring that program to
a responsible end.
I'm also the candidate.
That has a more than two decades
long track record of actually
passing laws in the toughest
of political environments and really
delivering progressive change for
people.
In light of the news regarding
Sarah Rodriguez and her campaign
finance issues,
have you been talking with Missy
Hughes, have you been to David
Crowley to try to get them to change
their enforcement to you?
I have heard from and
of course have reached out to
hundreds of folks around the state
and I'm proud to say that
I have earned the support of many
many people who initially were
supporting other candidates
including Missy and
David and Sarah.
You know this is the work that all
campaigns and candidates should be
constantly doing.
It is ABC always be campaigning
and working to earn people's support
and votes. I do think that
the dynamics have shifted markedly
in this race.
We've always known that this was
going to be a very late breaking
primary, that there
is really, we're not going to really
know anything until August
11th because so many
people are still not paying
attention and don't in fact even
know that there's an election going
on.
And that Because
there are not huge resources that
any candidate has, there has been
very little communication.
You know, we announced four weeks
ago that we were putting
forth a statewide ad
buy of half a million dollars.
That's been up for four weeks.
We announced earlier this week, now
we've got another ad buy focused on
the Milwaukee media market up on
broadcast.
So we are all in, we are making
those investments because we believe
that this is the moment when people
are gonna start paying attention.
And I am the candidate.
That folks all across the
Democratic Party,
from folks on the left and young
people who feel like politics has
failed them to moderate
sort of normie Democrats to
those disaffected Trump voters,
can find in me a
candidate who is responsible,
who listens, and who is focused on
the issues that matter most to
Wisconsin.
So no direct conversations with
Crowley or with Hughes.
Not, no.
How would you describe the
state of the race as we sit here at
this moment?
I would describe it as
completely wide open and up in the
air.
I still think that Mandela Barnes
has a significant advantage because
of his name ID, and that
makes sense because, you
know, I think close to $70 million
was spent trying to elect him to the
United States Senate four years ago,
and so people do know his
name. But we also know from our
polling that that support is very,
very soft, and most Democrats
want somebody else to be able to
carry the banner.
The job of governor is a very
serious one, and this is a once in a
generation opportunity.
We need a candidate at the top of
the ticket who will not only
beat Tom Tiffany, but help us
deliver a democratic assembly
and Senate.
And most importantly, we need
somebody who's actually capable of
doing the job of governing.
What's your July campaign finance
report gonna show?
I already released a report
basically outlining the fact that I
have raised $1.2
million in this campaign.
I have spent a
good number of that on the early
investment in media that I've
already
outlined in press releases and that
people have seen on their screens.
So I'm probably not going to have as
high of cash on hand as some of the
other candidates.
But I can assure you that the
numbers that I put out in my
campaign finance report and file
with the state. Will be accurate and
that voters can trust the numbers
that I put in there.
Questions?
Are the errors in Rodriguez's
campaign of finance reports
disqualifying you in your mind
should she drop out of the race?
It's not for me to tell anybody else
how to run their race.
I can tell you that when I looked at
those finance reports in January, it
didn't take me but five minutes to
immediately say, hey, there's
something wrong here.
There's so many duplicates.
What's going on?
And as a candidate for
office, I have run five campaigns.
I ran a statewide nonprofit
organization for four years.
I have ran a small business for
13 years through boom and bust
times, and I have on the Joint
Finance Committee in the State
Senate.
I cannot imagine
having no
financial procedures in place where
you could end up with such a massive
discrepancy and not
be looking at the bank balance and
reconciling that with the numbers
that you're getting.
It is simply
unimaginable that you would have
no idea that
you were basically inflating your
fundraising numbers,
almost doubling them in
representations that were being made
to donors. To me that is, there is
no way that that that should be able
to happen. You know every day how
much money you raise, how much you
spend, and you should be reconciling
those internal books with what's
actually in your checking account.
You mentioned Mando Barnes earlier.
Do you think that Barnes or
Francesca Hawn could beat Tiffany in
November?
I think that's up to us in
Wisconsin.
I think we cannot
allow Tom Tiffany to be governor.
There is no question about that.
Since I was in high school I've
never sat on an election cycle and I
will not be sitting out this one,
regardless of whether I am the
nominee. I do think that I am
strongest candidate to beat Tom
Tiffany.
I think I am a strongest candidate,
to help give us our best chance of
flipping that legislature
Democratic.
And I am by far the candidate with
the experience to actually govern
the state on day one.
And by the way, That is not just
an opinion that I hold.
That is also borne out by the fact
that I have, by far, the most
endorsements of elected and former
elected officials from every
corner of the state.
I actually have more endorsements
from Milwaukee County than any of
the other candidates.
I have the biggest endorsement in
the race, which is WEAC, our state
teacher's union, and the backing of
former Lieutenant Governor Barbara
Lawton.
So folks who are paying attention
and who really know what's at stake
here.
Have already made their choice.
And they've said that Calderoy's is
our strongest choice.
In the field to himself
and multiple ads portraying
himself as a friendly guy at the
bar, a neighbor next door.
Is that too big of a hill to
overcome after this primary is
settled? What kind of ads will have
to be aired in order to contrast
that with his record that you're
Absolutely not.
I think it's really important that
Wisconsinites know the truth about
Tom Tiffany. Listen, I like old
fashions.
I've got four daughters and a son.
I like going to the nutcracker with
them. That is not what qualifies
me to be governor.
What qualifies to be Governor is
that unlike Tom Tiffany, who is
a rubber stamp for Donald Trump,
I am an independent thinker who has
strong democratic values but has
also worked across the aisle year
after year to get things done and
actually deliver for people.
He wants a national abortion ban.
I believe that
You and your body and your health,
those decisions belong only to you
and not to your neighborhood
politician.
Tom Tiffany is an election denier.
I believe in free and fair elections
and fair maps.
Tom Tiffany supported Donald
Trump's illegal tariffs that are
bankrupting our farmers and our
small businesses and raising our
prices at the grocery store.
I've taken action again and again to
stand up to bullies and billionaires
like Donald Trump.
I will deliver for Wisconsinites.
Tom Tiffany only cares about doing
whatever Donald Trump wants.
Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Thank you so much.