FIXING OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

BRIEF SUMMARY​​

• Provide comprehensive universal Medicare For All as a right to every American, regardless of employment; including primary care, mental health, dental, vision, reproductive care, preventive services, and prescriptions.

• Lower costs for patients and taxpayers by cutting out insurance middlemen and negotiating drug prices directly.

• Invest in rural healthcare by supporting hospitals, pharmacies, and training doctors to serve underserved areas.

• Strengthen medical research and innovation by fully funding public research and expanding access to clinical trials, with a focus on our biggest public health challenges like curing cancer and heart disease.

ISSUE EXPLANATION​

Healthcare is a human right, not a perk of employment—and it should never be a profit-extraction scheme designed to enrich insurers and pharmaceutical executives. Every American deserves access to quality care regardless of whether they have a job, how much they earn, or where they live. Our current system is riddled with corruption, where corporate middlemen profit by denying care, inflating prices, and trapping patients in fine print. That is why I support a universal single-payer healthcare system that guarantees coverage for everyone, while allowing an opt-out for those who strongly prefer private insurance. Under this system, tax dollars would pay for the care people actually need, eliminating deductibles, surprise bills, out-of-network traps, and insurance company interference between patients and doctors. Countries with universal healthcare spend less per person than we do and achieve better outcomes because they prioritize patients over profit—and there is no reason the United States cannot do the same.

A single-payer system fully decouples healthcare from employment, ending a system that benefits insurers while punishing workers and small businesses. Losing a job should never mean losing access to care. Business owners should not have to worry about whether their employees are insured or shoulder skyrocketing premiums driven by corporate price-gouging. Employers should be focused on growing their businesses, paying higher wages, and investing in workers—not acting as health insurance brokers in a broken market. Medicare for All creates stable, portable, lifelong coverage that follows people throughout their lives instead of tying care to corporate employment.

Comprehensive care means covering the full range of medical needs, not just what is most profitable to insure. That includes primary care, mental health services, dental and vision care, reproductive and women’s healthcare, preventive screenings, emergency services, and prescription drugs. Preventive care and early treatment improve long-term health outcomes and reduce costs by addressing illness before it becomes a crisis—yet our current system discourages prevention because it cuts into corporate margins. A healthcare system should be designed to keep people healthy, not to maximize billing opportunities.

Runaway healthcare costs are not an accident—they are the result of a system captured by insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants, and administrative bloat. Price-gouging on prescription drugs, opaque billing practices, and massive executive compensation have driven U.S. healthcare spending far beyond that of peer nations. A national healthcare system would dramatically reduce administrative overhead and use its collective purchasing power to negotiate fair prices for drugs and medical equipment. That would lower costs for families, improve access to care, and free businesses from the burden of providing expensive private insurance plans.

Healthcare access must extend beyond major cities, where rural communities have been hit especially hard by hospital closures and provider shortages driven by profit-driven consolidation. I support investing in rural healthcare by keeping hospitals open, expanding telehealth, and funding programs that cover medical school tuition for doctors who commit to serving underserved areas. Healthcare decisions should be based on community need, not corporate balance sheets.

Finally, a strong healthcare system depends on public investment in research and innovation that serves the public good. I support fully funding the National Institutes of Health and expanding access to clinical trials, especially for patients with life-threatening conditions. Medical breakthroughs should not be hoarded behind paywalls or monopolies; innovation should save lives, not just generate shareholder returns. In a modern and moral society, no one should be too poor to get the care they need. Ending corruption in healthcare and guaranteeing care for all are essential to building a healthier, fairer, and more secure future for everyone.