Improve Healthcare Policies

Affordable, accessible, quality health care provides a very stable and necessary foundation for thriving family life in Florida and in every community in America. My focus will center on policies that will measurably improve the efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system and lower costs associated with health care treatment.

Total healthcare spending in the United States will soon account for nearly one-fifth of the American economy. 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 Floridian should expect and be able to depend upon. Yet 2.5 million state residents still lack health insurance coverage despite the availability of the Affordable Care Act, or what we all now know as Obamacare.

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

Rising costs force younger generations of Floridians to delay medical decisions, as do Sunshine State 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 any Senator’s top priorities. Harshly partisan attacks on the Affordable Care Act must be actively fought while also ensuring protection for people with pre-existing health conditions and expanding coverage for working families.

To that end, I 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 Florida state government, 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 Florida 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 Floridians.

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

• Extending these savings to Florida’s state government if they agree to expand Medicare coverage for our residents, especially those who should have been eligible for Medicaid.

• Equalizing the funding and technology gap between urban and rural healthcare systems in Florida and Sunshine State 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 states and nations.

Affordable, accessible, quality health care provides a very stable and necessary foundation for thriving family life in Florida or anywhere in America. My 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 and especially those here in Florida.