Healthcare You Need, When You Need It

Healthcare is a key concern for Texans across backgrounds and generations. Healthcare should be a guarantee, not a luxury. No family should have to choose between paying the light bill and paying for lifesaving medicine. By every metric, the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation. We pay 70% more because of Big Insurance companies with rising premiums and declining coverage, Big Pharma that overcharges Americans when comparing the cost of the same exact drug overseas, shady billing practices, and predatory facility fees to name a few reasons. I will fight to bring down the cost of prescriptions and relieve your medical debt.

I’m pushing for a health care system that centers patients, not profits. My message is clear: your health shouldn’t depend on your wallet.

Senate Priorities

I’m fighting to guarantee healthcare to every American, lower the overall cost of healthcare, while also reducing negative health outcomes especially in Texas where we lead in the number of uninsured -- including over a million children.

I’ve been a proud cosponsor of the Medicare for All Act to help the five million uninsured Texans obtain comprehensive health care coverage.
Eliminating premiums, deductibles, and copays – so that you can get the healthcare you need when you need it.
Uncoupling healthcare from your job to support more people having insurance, including small business owners, shift workers, and others who do not receive insurance through their employer.
Covering primary, dental, vision, mental health, reproductive, and emergency care as well as prescription drugs.
Supporting Medicare, and other federal programs, directly negotiating lower prescription drug prices.
Capping the price of lifesaving medications and annual out-of-pocket expenses for everyone, not just those on Medicare as was passed under President Biden.
Establishing a permanent Rural Hospital Stabilization Fund to help rural hospitals keep their costs low and their doors open.
Using those funds to also invest in rural opioid treatment and recovery centers, mental health providers, along with prenatal and maternal healthcares.
Providing federal block grants to universities to establish residency programs in rural hospitals.
Offering student debt relief for healthcare workers who practice in designated workforce shortage areas for at least 5 years.
Requiring site neutral payments so that you pay the same rate for the same service regardless of the healthcare setting.
Supporting broadband expansion and connectivity in rural Texas to deliver telehealth options.
Promoting competition and price transparency among pharmaceutical companies.
Cracking down on bad actors in Big Pharma, such as PBMs and other middlemen who extort small pharmacies and raise the cost of prescriptions for us.
Working with the State of Texas to cancel medical debt for millions of Texans through a combination of state and federal dollars.

My Work in the United States Congress

Healthcare is broken and we can’t wait any longer for real solutions. While Governor Abbott chooses to leave millions of our tax dollars on the table in Washington as he denies healthcare to over five million Texans, I’ve been working on a way to get around him.

I’ve co-sponsored the following bills, because we can’t afford to wait:

The (COVER) Now Act to allow counties the option to expand Medicaid and draw down federal dollars directly
The Medicare Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit Act and the Close the Medigap Act to cover the full range of healthcare services and protect patients with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage or face higher premiums
The Stop the Wait Act which ends the Medicare waiting period allowing Texans with serious disabilities to immediately receive coverage
The Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Act to cover multi-cancer early detection screening tests across many cancer types
I co-sponsor the Mamas and Babies in Underserved Communities Act that establishes grants to fund maternal healthcare with a focus on rural areas