In Congress, I will support policies to ensure health care coverage for all Americans that is both affordable and accessible. In the long term, this will likely mean moving toward a single-payer health care model. However, we can take immediate steps that build on our existing healthcare infrastructure to ensure improved health care access and affordability in the short-term. To do this, Congress must work to strengthen the ACA, not to sabotage it.
First, Congress needs to reinstate the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and cost-sharing reduction subsidies, both of which have been unwisely discontinued under the current administration. Repealing the individual mandate has encouraged some younger and healthier individuals to stop paying for health insurance. Removing these individuals from our health care insurance risk pools has led to higher premiums for those who are still insured.
Second, the current administration’s elimination of the cost-sharing reduction subsidies—which had been used in order to decrease out-of-pocket costs such as co-payments and deductibles—has unnecessarily raised health care costs for working men and women across the country. Those subsidies should be restored, at least for the short-term.
Third, Congress should add a Medicare buy-in option to all ACA health care exchanges. Private health insurance administrative costs typically account for 15–20% of premiums, while Medicare’s administrative costs are in the neighborhood of only 3–5%. It is time we allow individuals under the age of 65 to purchase Medicare through the ACA’s health care exchanges so that these savings can be passed along to millions of hardworking Americans in the form of lower premiums.
In addition to strengthening the ACA, we urgently need to address the crisis of opioid addiction that is ravaging our families and communities. It is a public health crisis which claims more lives with each passing year. Our federal government, leveraging the Centers for Disease Control, must work with state and local governments to identify better ways to prevent and treat such addictions. Law enforcement at all levels must interdict networks that produce and distribute these deadly drugs. Finally, health care providers and pharmaceutical companies must reduce access to opioids prescribed legally, seeking non-addictive alternatives for pain management.