MARSHFIELD, Wis (WSAU) – Some central Wisconsin lawmakers are part of a group working to improve the health care and economic vitality of rural Wisconsin.
According to State Representative John Spiros, keeping and attracting health care professionals through the “Rural Wisconsin Initiative” also means more people will stay or move to those areas. “The initiative really comes back to healthy rural Wisconsin, and an issue of losing physicians and nurses in the health care profession up in the rural areas.”
The Marshfield lawmaker says the initiative started late last year, and now there’s a second phase to expand the program’s funding. “In 2015, the program awarded nearly $600,000 in grants, funding 77 of the state’s 83 rural physician residency positions. Now the recommendation is to increase that funding by $250,000.”
Sprios said ‘out-of-the-box’ approaches should help attract health care professionals and create new jobs, including programs to re-pay up to 44% of a medical student loan, a half-million-dollar apprenticeship program, and broadband expansion and STEM grants. “We’re looking at STEM technology, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and doing more with grants for that. Our proposals allocate a million dollars per year for rural STEM grant programs,” according to Spiros.
The group working on the initiative consists of 23 Republican lawmakers from around the state, including Spiros, Kulp, Krug, Swearingen, and VanderMeer from central Wisconsin. To view the plan or offer suggestions, you can visit Rural Wisconsin Initiative.
