On the heels of Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milwaukee on Wednesday, Rep. Derrick Van Orden was joined by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Chippewa Valley on Thursday.
EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) – On the heels of Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milwaukee on Wednesday, Rep. Derrick Van Orden was joined by Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Chippewa Valley on Thursday.
In a two-stop tour that focused on healthcare, Rep. Van Orden and Dr. Oz visited the Marshfield Medical Center and the Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Health Education Center in Eau Claire.
“It’s an example of the way we should wisely deploy taxpayer dollars to provide high quality care for all Americans.” Dr. Oz said after touring the Marshfield hospital.
Dr. Oz touted the Rural Health Transformation Program as a step towards investing in rural healthcare.
“We’re going to make sure the Badger State is taken care of and that the funding that’s required to improve rural healthcare is at the level that it should be at,” Dr. Oz said. “So with that kind of money, you don’t put it in a system to pay bills, you put that money out there because you need to reform the system to work better for its people.”
The Rural Health Transformation Program was created by the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill last year and is a 5-year, $50-billion aid package. In 2026, the state of Wisconsin was awarded over $203-million in funds that are in turn currently going through a grant process administered by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
“For an extended period of time if a Republican heard the word, ‘healthcare,’ they’d dive out the window and roll into a bush,” Rep. Van Orden said. “That ain’t happening here, we’re the party of good policy so for the first time in a very long time we’re bringing good healthcare policy to the American people and it’s long overdue.”
This visit comes as Wisconsin is just over a month away from the August primary election. While Rep. Van Orden will next be on the ballot in November, the August 11 primary will decide which Democratic challenger will face off against him. Currently, both Emily Berge and Rebecca Cooke are vying to be the Democratic candidate for Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District.
Cooke wrote in a statement that reads:
“Derrick Van Orden voted to slash Medicare and Medicaid for millions of Americans in 2025 – the brunt of those cuts will be felt this fall. But we’ve already been seeing the unraveling of our healthcare system with the skyrocketing cost of medicine, overburdened ERs, closing labor and delivery units, healthcare premiums increasing from $400 to $1,800 a month…the list goes on. I’ve spent time talking with rural hospital CEOs and healthcare providers across this district who are struggling to keep their doors open because of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates.”
The rural health transformation fund is a drop in the bucket to what our actual healthcare needs are in Wisconsin. $204 million divided across 72 counties amounts to about $2 million/county – nowhere near meeting the healthcare needs of our state.
Dr. Oz is a caviar, crudite conservative, out of touch with the needs of rural America. Derrick Van Orden embraces his healthcare policies that put the thumb on West Central Wisconsin. We deserve better.”
Berge also shared a statement:
“It is sad and infuriating to watch Derrick Van Orden bring this snake-oil salesman to the district to try and distract folks from the fact that he has gutted healthcare in America. Representative Van Orden thinks that we don’t understand basic arithmetic; putting $50 billion into a ‘Rural Health Transformation Program’ after cutting $140 billion from rural healthcare doesn’t leave us whole. As a provider myself, I have helped our neighbors navigate the for-profit insurance world that leaves too many of our neighbors behind. I am the only candidate who supports universal healthcare to ensure that every Wisconsinite will receive the care they need; anything short of this will leave our neighbors and especially our rural communities behind.”
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