It’s all in the care we receive …

Total healthcare spending in the United States will account for nearly one-fifth of the American economy in just eight short years or two presidential terms. The growing federal share of this total stresses the need to quickly identify and immediately implement solutions to improve healthcare performance in the United States. This is a key driver of the blossoming federal debt and mismanaged response to daunting public health threats such as the recent coronavirus pandemic.

Access to quality, affordable health care is a right every American should expect and be able to depend upon. Yet 25 million people still lack health insurance coverage despite the availability of the Affordable Care Act, or what we all now know as Obamacare.

Millions of our fellow citizens are one accident or illness away from bankruptcy because they cannot afford critical medications or costly medical procedures.  More elderly Americans struggle to pay for prescription drugs that continue to strain their bank or savings accounts. 

Rising costs force younger generations to delay medical decisions, as do families who must cover multiple members, let alone feed, house, and educate them. Making ends meet is hard enough without surprise health issues creeping into kitchen table discussions or the government limiting health care options.

Expanding access to health care and lowering costs must be one of our party’s top priorities. Harshly partisan attacks on the Affordable Care Act must be actively fought by independents while also ensuring protection for people with pre-existing health conditions and expanding coverage for working families.

We favor and will pursue the following:

• Preserving and strengthening the Affordable Care Act and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, otherwise known as CHIP.

• Ensuring that women have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions without interference from the government, whether it be federal or state, and enshrining those protections in federal statute to restore Roe v. Wade as the undisputed law of the land.

• Advocating for more significant federal and state investments in a new generation of highly trained primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners.

• Federally capping out-of-pocket costs for all Americans.

• Ensuring that Medicare can better negotiate prescription costs, driving down prices for all our citizens.

• Extending these savings to state governments who agree to expand Medicare coverage for their residents, especially those who should have been eligible for Medicaid.

• Equalizing the funding and technology gap between urban and rural healthcare systems and providers so that hospital closures no longer create a care crisis.

• Investing in addiction treatment services to help combat the opioid and fentanyl epidemic, as well as increasing access to mental health services.

• Holding big pharmaceutical and insurance companies accountable for denials of treatment or price gouging when measured with costs for similar drugs in other nations.

Affordable, accessible, quality health care provides a very stable and necessary foundation for thriving family life in America. Our focus will center on policies that will measurably improve the efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system for the benefit of all U.S. citizens.