[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

University of Wisconsin medical students sounded off in favor of universal health care at the state Capitol Wednesday, voicing their opinions to legislators face-to-face.

The group of 35 representatives from the UW chapter of the American Medical Students Association held a lunch where they heard legislators speak on the issue, later sitting in on individual meetings with legislators to urge support of the plan.

?We?re actually a very active group, and we feel very passionately that something needs to change,? said Leslie Bishop, a first-year medical student and coordinator of the event. ?Wisconsin has been a leader in many other parts of health care, and we could be one of the first states to introduce a universal health care that could actually work.?

The plan the students advocated is dubbed ?Healthy Wisconsin? and was first introduced to be included in the state budget before last summer?s lengthy budget negotiations. It was then removed, as it proved to be a ?sticking point,? according to Rep. Chuck Benedict, D-Beloit.

Benedict added since then it has progressed through the Senate but ?hasn?t gotten much air? in the Republican-controlled Assembly.

?As much as [the students] have every right to express their opinions at the state Capitol, they?re really tilting at windmills here,? Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbottsford said. ?We don?t have the money, the bill doesn?t have the statewide support, and it certainly doesn?t have the votes in the Legislature. The bill is dead this session.?

But according to Benedict and Suder, the legislation could see new life if the makeup of the Legislature changes dramatically for the next session.

?Healthy Wisconsin 2.0 might come up next term, and how far it will get in terms of it being taken seriously depends on how the elections go,? Benedict said.

However, the group of medical students did not expect immediate results. Instead, their goal was to raise awareness on the issue and to begin forming relationships with legislators for the next time the bill comes up, according to Bishop.

?We feel like our voices should be heard because we?re people that are going to be delivering this health care,? she said, adding the group would continue advocating the issue with op-eds and another lobby day in the future.

Suder said the Legislature does have the will to act on health care improvements, especially as it is likely to be an important issue for voters when the elections roll around.

?It just depends on whether we?re going to take a consumer-based, free-market approach, like some of us would do, or if we?re going to let the government take over health care,? Suder said.

However, Benedict said in the United States health care for every citizen should be a right, and government is the best mechanism to fund it.

The lunch that preceded the lobbying Wednesday took place at a church that also functions as a clinic for the uninsured, staffed by many UW medical students, according to Bishop.

?That?s something that?s really symbolic about why our chapter cares so much about this issue, because a lot of the students can see that among doctors our hands are really tied when people come into the offices and just don?t have the money to afford the care you want to give them,? Bishop said.