Issue Position: Healthcare
Issue Position
Your health, your life must not be a commodity; everyone must have access to quality, affordable healthcare, including preventative services, regardless of economic background or medical history. No American should ever go broke paying for treatment.
We must stop undermining the Affordable Care Act, and instead work together to expand and improve it.
Eventually, we should have a Medicare For All universal healthcare system.
And we should invest heavily and bring our technological advances to bear in finding cures for diseases from ALS to Alzheimer's to cancer.
Affordable Access to Care
All Americans should have the right to quality health care.
I am committed to defending and extending the gains in coverage made under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, and protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
I am a cosponsor of the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act, which would establish a single-payer system to provide health insurance coverage to all eligible United States residents.
Innovating Our Way to Cures
We must support medical innovation that will lead to lifesaving cures and keep down the cost of treatments.
My bipartisan Advancing Access to Precision Medicine Act would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to enter work with the National Academy of Medicine on how the federal government can reduce barriers to the utilization of genetic and genomic testing, which would allow for better delivery of precision medicine - the customization of healthcare, with medical decisions, treatments, practices, or products tailored to the individual patient.
I supported the 21st Century Cures Act, authorizing the Cancer Moonshot and Precision Medicine Initiative as well as streamlining the FDA approval process for innovative drugs.
I and Rep. Pete Sessions have led efforts to make clinical oncology trials more accessible and equitable.
I led letters to encourage the FDA to retain relevant staff in life-science hubs to provide guidance to start-up
companies so that their innovative treatments can reach the patients who need them.
I've cosponsored the Childhood Cancer STAR Act, which would promote research on and promote the delivery of pediatric cancer treatment.
Reproductive Health
A woman must have the right to choose what is best for her and her family.
I oppose any and all efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and undermine a woman's right to choose.
I cosponsored the Women's Health Protection Act, to invalidate any state laws singling out abortion providers for requirements and restrictions that are medically unnecessary, don't promote women's health or safety, and limit access to abortion services.
Mental health
Every American must have access to quality mental health care.
I cosponsored the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Accessibility Act of 2017, which would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to offer loans and loan guarantees to psychiatric treatment facilities, substance abuse treatment facilities, and psychiatric hospitals for the planning and construction of new facilities.
The Opioid Epidemic
We must tackle this crisis that's killing thousands and affects millions of Americans every year.
I voted for the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides $1 billion in funding for opioid treatment over two years.
I cosponsored the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 2017, which would establish grant programs to review and evaluate prescribing and dispensing patterns of opioids, increase screening and treatment of patients to prevent drug abuse, and develop education materials for safe prescribing methods.
I SUPPORT
the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, and protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Planned Parenthood and vow to defend a woman's right to choose.
my bipartisan Advancing Access to Precision Medicine Act that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to enter work with the National Academy of Medicine to deliver precise treatments.
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