Policy for Family Healthcare
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Expanding Healthcare Access and Medicaid
Texas currently has the highest uninsured rate in the nation, leaving 1 in 5 residents behind in the healthcare system [1, 2]. To guarantee that families can get the preventative and emergency care they need, we must prioritize state-level access:
- Medicaid Expansion: We must immediately expand Medicaid to bring our Texas federal tax dollars back home, which is essential to keep our rural and community clinics open [3].
- Health Equity: We must bridge the healthcare access gap for underserved communities, ensuring that a family’s zip code does not dictate their life expectancy [4].
- Reference: Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) – Texas Health Data
Protecting Women’s Healthcare and Reproductive Rights
Every Texan deserves the right to safely start and grow their family. Healthcare policies must prioritize patient autonomy and maternal survival:
- Reproductive Rights:We will defend medical freedom and patient autonomy by keeping government mandates out of the exam room, ensuring all personal healthcare decisions remain strictly between Texans, their families, and their doctors.
- Maternal Health: To give every Texan a healthy start, the state must tackle the maternal mortality crisis—which disproportionately impacts women of color—by significantly expanding postpartum care [7].
- Reference: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)
Mental Health Access and Workplace Support
A holistic approach to family health requires supporting both mental well-being and the ability of workers to care for themselves without financial ruin:
- Mental Health Access: We will work to ensure that every hardworking Texas family has access to affordable, high-quality healthcare, because a medical emergency should never result in bankruptcy.
- Mandatory Sick Pay: We will partner with job creators to incentivize family-friendly workplace policies so that hardworking parents can care for a sick child without jeopardizing their employment or the success of small businesses.
- Reference: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Healthcare Affordability, Funding, and Pragmatic Leadership
Fixing our healthcare system requires moving past culture wars and working with whoever is focused on problems, not politics, in Texas communities [6]. We must implement state rules that protect the financial health of families:
- Prescription Affordability: We must enact state-level transparency rules and price caps on life-saving medications, such as insulin, to protect seniors and families from price gouging [9].
- Medical Debt and Billing: We will champion the “Patient Protection Act” to stop predatory billing practices and ensure medical emergencies do not result in a life sentence of ruined credit [2].
- Reference: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)