Flanked by a group of small-business owners, farmers and nurses, Wisconsin Democrats lobbied for legislative action on health-care reform during a press conference Wednesday at the Capitol.

State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who led the call for reform, said he and other legislators will introduce a bill that would require the state to reformulate the state's health-care policies in the next legislative cycle.

Under the bill, the state will have to pass legislation that would provide health-care coverage for more than 98 percent of the state's population and reduce health-care costs in Wisconsin by 15 percent by the beginning of 2008.

"Health care is not working in the state of Wisconsin anymore," Erpenbach said. "There are people going without health care, and there are people who do have health care but can't afford it anymore."

Erpenbach said the current health-care system is hurting the state's economy at the expense of Wisconsin residents and businesses.

"The legislative priority in a bipartisan fashion has got to be health care," Erpenbach said.

Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, agreed, adding the state Legislature should not focus on other bills that are less pertinent to the state's overall welfare.

"So far in this session, Republicans have tried to ban birth control on college campuses, make criminals out of our leading scientists, and now they're making efforts to allow hidden guns in public places," Taylor said. "These are the misplaced priorities of the Republican majority. Meanwhile, 300,000 people in the state of Wisconsin are without health care — this is the fourth-straight year that [the number of] people without has increased."

Rep. Donna Siedel, D-Wausau, said her constituents are mostly concerned with health-care reform in the state and want legislators to "step up." In a report released last month, the Wausau area was found to have the second-highest health-care costs in the nation.

"Small-business owners simply can't afford to provide insurance, farmers have no where to turn and workers can choose between high deductibles or simply no insurance plan at all," Siedel said.

Nearly 100 nurses and health-care workers — most of them members of the Service Employees International Union — were in attendance for the press conference.

"If legislators were health-care providers, they would be charged with malpractice," Diane Palmer, a nurse and SEIU president, said.

Wisconsin Farmers Union representative and dairy farmer Kathleen Vinehout said the state's agricultural producers are in desperate need of a state health-care plan.

"Health care is the No. 1 problem of rural people in Wisconsin," Vinehout said.

Many of the state's producers obtain employment outside of farming to get some form of health insurance. This can have a devastating effect on family farms, she added.

In addition to this health-care initiative, State Sen. Judith Robson, D-Beloit, and State Rep. John Lehman, D-Racine, said Tuesday they will introduce legislation that would outlaw mandatory overtime requirements set by hospitals and health-care facilities.

"This legislation is needed because current law allows an employer to require an employee to work in excess of 40 hours per week," Lehman said in a release. "As a result, health-care workers are repeatedly called upon to work long hours under circumstances that potentially put patients in jeopardy."