Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

I believe that if you live in America you have a right to affordable, quality healthcare. Since 2003 employer sponsored healthcare premiums have risen 80 percent, three times faster than wages or inflation. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) these cost increases have slowed dramatically.

The ACA was passed by Congress to give all Americans access to health care, put individuals in charge of their own medical decisions, gain control of escalating healthcare costs, prevent denial or cancellation of insurance and remove lifetime limits on medical coverage, encourage preventative care without costs or minimal costs to patients; protect individuals' choice of doctors, and keep young people covered. It also gave patients an important Bill of Rights.

The ACA is not perfect and Congress needs to keep working to improve it. But I will always fight to ensure that if you live in this country you should be able to get medical care, including access to important preventative care that will help reduce health care costs overall.

We must invest in making medical research a national priority, including research into the cure, treatment and prevention of physical and mental disorders. We need to support and increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Science Foundation that keeps pace with scientific opportunity and societal needs.

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