Cooke Highlights Chippewa Valley Healthcare Crisis Ahead of November Election

Democratic candidate for Wisconsin's Third Congressional District Rebecca Cooke shared her thoughts on the healthcare crisis facing the Chippewa Valley with just weeks to go until the November election.

During a press conference outside the former HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital site in Eau Claire on Thursday, Cooke criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year and the impact it could have on rural hospitals. She highlighted the strain the HSHS closures put on the healthcare industry in the region, and expressed concerns about how additional cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill scheduled to go into effect over the coming months could further threaten healthcare access for local residents.

"The hospital that's behind us here has been closed for years," she said. "And when it closed, we lost behavioral health beds, we lost labor and delivery, we lost a fixture in this community that has ensured that people have access to care here in the Chippewa Valley. And since then, we have not seen much from our congressional leadership to right the ship. We've seen neighboring Menomonie close their labor and delivery, and we watched as our Congressman was the deciding vote to gut Medicaid and make it more difficult for local hospitals and rural hospitals across this district to stay open."

Cooke says if Democrats take control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the November election, their first legislative session should be solely focused on healthcare. She also highlighted extending the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, expanding Medicaid to cover dental and vision, increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates, and creating a public option for health insurance as policies she would want to see adopted in that legislation.

Cooke also noted that when those additional cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill go into effect after the midterm election, more people could begin to demand action on healthcare. She believes that additional public pressure could force the Trump administration to work on a bipartisan solution.

"I want to work, like I said, in a bipartisan way," she said. "And to do that, we've got to bring this administration along with us. And I think that they're going to see a demand from people across this country after a lot of these cuts really hit people's pocketbooks. They're going to need to take action to make sure that they're righting the ship on the big cuts that they made to healthcare across this country."

Cooke is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden in the November election.