Defending Healthcare for All

I strongly support the Affordable Care Act and have voted consistently against Republican attempts to cripple or repeal it. It has afforded millions of Americans who formerly lacked health insurance the coverage they need while preventing insurance companies from excluding those with pre-existing conditions. I regret that millions of Americans have lost coverage under Obamacare through the Trump Administration’s policies and regulations that are hostile to its intent.

I believe that healthcare in this country should be a right and not a privilege and that we must continue to strive to attain universal coverage. I believe the best way to accomplish that is by adding a public option under the Obamacare health insurance exchanges, so that people and families have an affordable alternative to private insurance. Such an option would provide competition for private insurance and, in so doing, could help drive down overall costs.

I also believe that Congress should end the current ban on the federal government’s ability to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry for recipients of Medicare and Medicaid. This would utilize market forces to drive down prices and make prescription drugs more affordable for all Americans – just as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has done successfully on behalf of millions of veterans who served in our military.

Finally, many of the most successful prescription drugs have been developed through the work and support of federal researchers and federal grants. I believe that taxpayers, who have paid for these advances in drug research and development, should reap some of the rewards for their investment. We ought to explore ways to limit or cap the profits that pharmaceutical companies are reaping from drugs developed with the help of taxpayers in order to reduce their exorbitant costs.