Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

Health care is a concern for almost everyone I talk with in my district. It is expensive. It is difficult to navigate. The system is oftentimes capricious. My mom is a nurse and my brother is a nursing home administrator so I see firsthand the difficulties that both patients and providers suffer as a result.

I believe health care is a right, not a privilege. Everyone should have easy access to quality care regardless of their ability to pay. We must provide women's health care services like effective contraception and reproductive health. We must make sure that people can afford their prescription medications.

But keeping people healthy isn't just the caring thing to do. COVID-19 has shined a spotlight on how the community's health needs affect everyone. When our neighbors get sick, it increases the chances we'll get sick. When our neighbors get sick, it harms the local economy. When our neighbors can't get sufficient health insurance, we end up paying more in health insurance premiums. When our neighbors don't get preventative care, it increases health care costs for patients and taxpayers down the road.

I wrote my dissertation on the stigma surrounding mental illness. Access to mental health care is particularly important to me. I hear it from so many voters as well, and I'll be looking for health care initiatives that treat mental health issues with the same care as physical issues.

Our 5-year-old daughter Luna has a severe nut allergy. She was tested at the allergist a couple of years ago, right after the controversy erupted over the EpiPen price surge. When I learned we would need to have at least two EpiPens at all times, I panicked. Yet when I got to the pharmacy, the cost for two EpiPens was $0. When we needed to refill our prescription after the pens expired a year later, we got two more at $0 plus two more epinephrine injectors from a new company who sent them to us for free because of our health insurance. So over the course of 13 months, we received 6 life-saving devices at no extra cost to us beyond our monthly premiums.

Families with so much less than us have to decide whether they can afford $800 for one EpiPen. I feel fortunate, but also angry -- everyone should have the options my family does. I hate thinking about the choices we force people into because of how our health care system works. We can't settle for this, and I won't. We have to make sure people have the means to protect their families.

Source