Our next Community Conversations, Saturday, January 24, will be on “The Crisis in Healthcare 2026” at the Menomonie Public Library from 12:30 to 2:30 pm.

Attendees will be encouraged to share their concerns about healthcare – the expense, the complexity of health insurance, the difficulty in finding a primary care provider, the quality of care and other concerns.

Senator Jeff Smith, Ranking Member of the Senate Health Committee, has confirmed that he will be attending. Representative Clint Moses, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long Term Care, is trying to put this Saturday’s meeting on his schedule.

The first part of our presentation will focus on issues of our national healthcare crisis as expressed by our participants and to share these concerns to our representatives in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin as a state has a part to play in the solutions to our healthcare needs.

The second part of this presentation are the proposed solutions. We need to offer our citizens and residents adequate healthcare and address prevention of disease in our state and nation. Republican and Democratic legislators are in agreement on most issues of the worsening in our country’s healthcare crisis. Both sides have good suggestions in their plans to reform our current system.

We will view two YouTube videos. One about health insurance – the complexity and expense that insurance brings to healthcare. The other view about a United States Senate committee meeting (The Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) which discusses plans for reforming our US healthcare system. Part of the solution for Republicans is the use of HSA’s (Health Saving Accounts). HSA’s are not a new concept, but an expansion is being proposed to this plan to allow the consumer to more adequately fund their accounts and to use them for more of their health care needs.

Join us Saturday for the presentation and discussion.

Lorene Vedder is a retired local physician and the founder of Community Conversations.