Healthcare Access & Medicare-for-All

Healthcare is a human right.

Everyone should have access to healthcare, regardless of their employment status, their identity, or their background. 

As a former healthcare worker, I saw firsthand how our pain generates profits for Wall Street, private health insurers, and big pharma. People have to ration medication, skip treatment, or avoid calling an ambulance because they can’t afford what should never have had a price tag in the first place. The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world with the worst health outcome of any developed country. In the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world, we need to do better. We should not be letting countries with a fraction of our resources and power run laps around us with healthcare.

Passing Medicare-for-All

I will fight to pass Medicare-for-All: a single-payer system that covers every person in this country from birth, with no premiums, no deductibles, no copays, and no network restrictions. Healthcare decisions should be between patients and providers, not insurance adjusters looking for reasons to deny care to minimize cost and maximize profit. Medicare for All is far less expensive than the fragmented, for profit, fee-for-service system we have now.

Coverage under Medicare-for-All must be comprehensive. That means mental health, vision, hearing, dental, gender-affirming, and reproductive care are included. It also means lifting any caps or restrictions on the ability of Medicare to negotiate prices with drug or medical device manufacturers. The artificial distinction between "medical" care and care for our eyes, ears, teeth, and mind exists because it is profitable rather than for any health related outcome.

Taking on Big Pharma and the Insurance Industry

Pharmaceutical companies extract massive profits from drugs developed with public research dollars and then charge Americans more than any other country in the world for those same medications. I will work to fix this injustice through legislation that:

• Removes the statutory limits on Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices across the board.

• Caps profits on any drug that relies on publicly funded research.

• Bans direct-to-patient pharmaceutical advertising, as almost every other developed democracy already does. These ads just help drive up prices and pressure healthcare providers to prescribe overpriced drugs that may not be optimal for the best health outcomes.

• Invests in drug intervention and addiction treatment. We need to treat substance use as a public health crisis rather than as a criminal issue. 

• Holds pharmaceutical companies accountable for things like creating the opioid epidemic.

Building the Healthcare Workforce

We have a healthcare worker shortage because it’s exorbitantly expensive to earn medical degrees, the pay is not nearly as lucrative as most people assume until several years in, the job is immensely stressful which leads to high rates of burnout, and that's without accounting for the politicization of our health system by bad faith actors looking to punish their ideological enemies over differences of opinion by undermining trust in empirical data, science, and medical consensus. We need to help healthcare workers feel secure and comfortable in their career path. I will push for legislation that:

• Provides federal tuition funding for all public trade schools, colleges, and universities, including medical and nursing schools.

• Creates and enhances loan repayment programs for healthcare workers, providing widespread debt relief as well as targeted relief for people working in under-served communities. 

• Allocates funding to support the opening of more medical schools and expands residency slots so we train enough clinicians to meet demand.

• Protects the VA healthcare system from privatization and maintains it since it is currently the biggest training ground for the medical workforce.

• Assists in recruiting and training healthcare workers from marginalized backgrounds. Patient outcomes improve measurably when patients can find providers who look like them, speak their language, and understand their lived experience.

Protecting Healthcare Workers

We can't have a functioning healthcare system without protecting the people who deliver care. I will fight to:

• End subcontracting, independent contractor employment models, and the misclassification of employees as contractors. These practices strip workers of benefits, bargaining power, and basic protections in favor of employer profit. This aligns with the worker protections of the PRO Act and stronger labor standards.

• Guarantee the right to organize without retaliation across every healthcare employer, public or private.

• Establish safe, fact-based staffing ratios enforceable by federal law. Doctors, nurses, and techs should maintain patient ratios that allow them to spend ample time and care with each patient without causing burnout.

• Strengthen workplace safety standards and OSHA enforcement for all workers, especially in healthcare settings where workplace violence and injury rates have increased substantially.

Advocating for Rural and Under-served Communities

Rural hospitals are closing at alarming rates, and when they close, people die. Market forces are not going to fix this problem.

I will advocate for permanent federal funding and federal operation of rural and under-served medical facilities across the country. I will also promote the construction of new hospitals where none exist. Models like the VA and the Indian Health Service show that the federal government can run care facilities directly. We need to double down on funding for the VA and IHS and use that as a baseline for new facilities. 

Dealing with Mental Health and Substance Use

I've helped people in the military and as civilians when they were in mental health crises, and I've been through those struggles myself. Mental healthcare has to be a core component of basic medical care. I will fight in Congress for:

• Full parity and integration of mental health into primary care, with walk-in access at federally operated facilities.

• Increased funding and infrastructure for life preservation and suicide prevention programs, also supporting continued expansion and adequate staffing of the 988 crisis line and community-based crisis response systems.

• Dramatic expansion of the behavioral health workforce through tuition assistance and specialized training programs.

• Addressing the addiction, overdose, and suicide rates tied directly to financial stress, isolation, and lack of access. Programs that help people feel financially secure and connected to their communities are vital for preventing these harmful behaviors. 

Preparing for Pandemics and Public Health Crises

COVID-19 showed us what happens when public health infrastructure is designed for profit instead of preserving public health. I will push for federal legislation that supports:

• Substantially increased federal funding for personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpiles and infectious disease preparedness, updated regularly so we are prepared for the next pandemic or public health crisis.

• Ventilation and filtration upgrades in medical facilities, protecting both workers and patients from airborne transmission of pathogens.

• Public health campaigns against health misinformation and disinformation, which has cost American lives and continues to endanger healthcare workers.

• Stronger enforcement of safe animal agriculture practices since industrial factory farming is the number one source of novel diseases and pandemics in the modern era.

Promoting Equity and Inclusive Care

Gender-affirming care is healthcare. I will oppose every attempt to strip transgender people of the medical care their doctors agree they need, and I will work to guarantee access through federal programs.

Culturally competent care has to be built into how we train and evaluate healthcare workers. Cultural competence can help reduce discrimination in delivering care, recruit providers from the communities they serve, require meaningful cultural competency training, and ensure language accessibility in every facility.