MADISON, Wis. — Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, many of those hailed as health care heroes still face plenty of challenging working conditions.
While the pandemic may be on the downswing, the fight for more benefits is not.
The legislation is hardly a new idea. Two years after the pandemic began, the lawmakers who back this proposal, called the "Healthcare Heroes Act," are still pushing for it and said it's simply about giving those who work on the frontline of health care the support and resources they are asking for.
Lately, Miguel Meza's days have begun with lots of questions.
“Some mornings I question like, 'Why am I doing this?'" Meza explained. “'Why am I putting myself through this when I don't have to?' Like, I'm still young. I can still go to another career path.”
Meza, who is a certified nursing assistant right now, is an aspiring anesthesiologist.
He's working his way through school and not just paying his dues, but bills too.
“I was not expecting that,” Meza said. “Like I wasn't expecting my mom to get COVID and then my boss to be like 'Oh, yeah you can't work.'”
Just like that, Meza, who wasn't sick, was stuck at home.
“Just those two weeks messed up a lot of my financial situation and even my credit score, and it was just really bad,” Meza said. “I was like pissed off at my boss, but she said she couldn't do anything. It was just the rule that we don't get paid.”
A bill from State Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, sought to change that rule and give health care workers hazard pay, paid medical leave, along with COVID-19 testing and treatment for those uninsured.
“Health care workers are heroes, and we should provide the support and resources they need to continue their heroic work and keep our communities protected from this pandemic,” Vining said in a statement. “Frontline [health care] workers continue performing vital roles to combat this pandemic, because it is not simply what they do, but who they are. Wisconsin [health care] heroes are counting on us to act. [Health care] workers have been doing their job, and now it’s our turn to do ours.”
Meza said benefits like those would make putting himself on the line feel like less of a liability.
“You put your face in front of, you know COVID, like face to face with it, so it's really scary, and you want to feel like you have this other plan B or like something else to kind of keep you afloat,” Meza said. “Something to remind you that, you know whatever you're doing is worth it, and fighting through this whole pandemic will sometime payoff.”
The group of Democrats pushing for the bill was unable to get a public hearing for it this legislative session. However, they did force a vote on the proposal by introducing it as an amendment to another COVID-related bill in the Assembly.
That effort wasn't successful, and with the legislature now adjourned for the session, the bill will have to be introduced again when lawmakers come back in 2023.