Health Care

When I was 28 years old, I almost died.

I was running in my first race for the Texas House. I decided to walk the entire length of my district — 25 miles in one day — holding town halls along the way. I wasn’t worried about my ability to finish the walk — I hike Big Bend every year!

But about halfway through, I started feeling nauseous and fatigued. I threw up a couple of times on the way, but figured I was just dehydrated. Somehow, I finished.

When I got home, I slept for 36 hours. My family rushed me to the ER, where nurses checked my blood sugar. I was immediately diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was in diabetic ketoacidosis, which ends in coma and death without insulin.

When I got out of the ICU, I went to Walgreens to pick up my first 30-day supply of insulin. It cost me $684. I didn’t have that kind of money (most Texans don’t, either) — so I put it on a credit card. I later learned that it costs companies only $10 per vial to produce insulin, but Big Pharma boosts profits by price gouging.

So when I got elected, I passed bills that capped insulin copays at $25 a month and allowed Texas to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada at a fraction of what they cost in the U.S. due to price gouging by Big Pharma.

But there’s so much more to do. Republicans in DC just passed the largest transfer of wealth in American history with their “Big Ugly Bill.” They slashed Medicaid and Medicare, are kicking 15 million people off their health insurance, and raised premiums for millions more — all to give yet another tax break for billionaires.

It’s time to take our fight for guaranteed health care to our nation’s capital and finally put the lives of Americans over the profits of billionaire mega-donors and special interests. 

Because health care is a human right.

This is not a comprehensive list! If you have policy ideas you want to see from your next U.S. Senator, please reach out HERE. We want to hear from you!

• Allow every American — regardless of their age — to join Medicare: Provide an affordable not-for-profit health care option for every American, while also bringing down costs for those who don’t participate by increasing competition with private insurance.
• Lower prescription drug costs: Increase price transparency and negotiating power to ensure fair pricing, incentivize the development and approval of generic drugs, institute caps on out-of-pocket costs, and regulate pharmacy benefit managers to ensure they’re not up-charging patients.
• Protect health coverage and lower premiums: Protect and improve the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and reverse the Trump Administration’s dangerous cuts to the ACA enhanced tax credits, Medicare, and Medicaid that will kick 15 million Americans off their insurance and raise premiums for millions more.
• Reform the prior authorization system: Ensure that insurance companies do not arbitrarily deny patients the medication and treatments that their health care providers have determined necessary. 
• Restore access to reproductive health care in Texas: Codify Roe v. Wade and protect access to contraception and IVF so that families can get the reproductive care they need and so that women are no longer dying needlessly due to Texas’ dangerous abortion ban.
• Save rural hospitals: Prioritize recruiting and retaining rural health care workers,  improve Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates to more swiftly deliver payments to hospitals, and make sure rural hospitals have the funding they need to continue to serve as vital employers and health care providers.
• Protect Americans from crippling medical debt: Regulate medical debt collection practices, bar the inclusion of medical debt in credit scores, and increase transparency and public reporting of both medical billing practices and the allocation of financial assistance provided by hospitals.
• Ensure veterans have access to the services they’ve earned: Stand against efforts to privatize the VA, and fund the agency to ensure every veteran receives the quality care they need.

• Lowered prescription drug costs by capping insulin co-pays at $25 a month in Texas, allowing Texas to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada at reduced costs, cracking down on Big Pharma for price-gouging, and establishing a prescription drug savings program for uninsured Texans.
• Held health insurance companies accountable by cracking down on surprise billings for emergency care and banning insurance companies from steering patients to hospitals that overcharge for services.
• Brought down health insurance premiums by regulating anticompetitive consolidation practices that health care and insurance companies use to inflate prices.
• Protected rural hospitals by approving the establishment of the State Office of Rural Hospital Finance and the Texas Rural Hospital Officers Academy.
• Combatted the health care worker shortage by offering tuition and fee exemptions for emergency medical students.
• Increased access to medical marijuana for adults by expanding patient eligibility and establishing a compassionate use review board.
• Protected Medicaid access for thousands of Texans by using a procedural point of order on the floor of the Texas house to kill legislation that would have kicked people off their coverage.
• Supported veterans’ mental health by directing Texas agencies to research alternative therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder.