HEALTH CARE
Here's a topic that I've literally dedicated my entire adult life to, that I'm so excited to have input in at the Legislative level: HEALTHCARE!
At age 17, I enlisted in the Army as a medic and learned healthcare at the first responder level. Then, the GI Bill helped pay for my college, where I first thought I'd be a Nurse, but found a different pathway for myself getting my Masters in Public Health.
Once I shifted that focus, I learned SO much from my professors who were experts in fields like Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Ethics, and Population Health, that have absolutely shaped my views on the government's role in the American healthcare system. I'll share some of them here, but it's such a complex issue that it's just a start.
1) Health care is not a right. For something to be a right, it cannot require the efforts of someone else to grant it to you. A right would imply that doctors, nurses, pharmaceuticals, etc. need to work for free to grant your right to healthcare. That's slavery. However, we're fortunate to have a government that views good health as an important quality for our citizens to strengthen the readiness of a whole nation, and that allocates tax dollars to programs for basic healthcare for anyone who needs it. That's why I appreciate the safety nets in place for the old, young, and disabled, and I'd like to see more done for those w preexisting and genetic conditions and other issues beyond our own control.
2) All health care cannot stand alone in the free market. Y'all know I LOVE the free market, but while there ARE flexible components, like elective surgery or enhancement medications, there are also demand-static items that are inflexible despite supply, despite cost, and we need to come up w a pricing solution that both covers their requirement, but also allows money for innovation and development.
One of those fixed-demand items is insulin. My friend Nicole Smith-Holt (who JUST shared her story in DC, see the video at 30:00) has been advocating loudly since her son, Alec, died last year due to the high cost of medication when he left his parent's health plan. At Alec's funeral and beyond, we've ALL said that this isn't fair and it's not how things should be. My solution to prevent another needless death is multifaceted, but the major components include: changing patent laws in America to reward innovators but also open competition to drive down cost, and then to create drug-specific public utility pricing model like we have for water and gas services to our house, that objectively sets a fair price ceiling for the product, plus padding for invention and development in the field. That, in addition to some insurance changes would increase access and affordability for the patient, but also for the rest of us to be able to help them.
3) Open health insurance across state lines and reduce the mandated requirements of plans. The mandates are set by lobbies of their respective industry to ensure job security. And it varies from state to state. But my idea was first proposed when the ACA redesign was happening in 2009 (my health econ professor was invited to DC to have input) but it was suppressed by special interest lobbyists that were at the same table as doctors and economists (per her account). By allowing health care to operate in a car insurance model - where it's NOT tied to your job, where you can choose to buy a minimal plan of EHBs (Essential Health Benefits, currently, that includes things like pediatric, preventative, and emergency services among others) or get the Cadillac plan that has elective surgeries, brand name medication over generics, etc. you can do that, too. And from there, add what you need. As a 32 year old single woman, I'd pay for MY stage of life needs and those for my children. Why should I be rolled into prostate exams, infertility treatments, and geriatric care when I don't need it? Insurers would improve their marketing to brand packages to stage of life buyers and then diversify their clientele to make up the differences for the low payouts of healthy 20-somethings to the ongoing medical issues of old age. MUCH better than mandating and fining the free market, open it and remove government to support innovation.
I'll start w those 3 ideas, but I have plenty more, and I love learning new ideas. As Legislators, our job is to listen to the people living experiences that aren't are own, and then not to make soundbite promises about vague fixes through legislation, but to take that and think critically about if and how government can facilitate solutions that can help them, help us, and help the population operate better where it's possible.