We believe healthcare is a human right and it is our Commonwealth’s responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of all of its people, including our children, our infirmed, and our elderly. The rising costs of healthcare, combined with efforts by the current federal administration to dismantle gains made through the Affordable Care Act, have resulted in an environment where people are often unable to seek the treatment they desperately need. We demand quality healthcare that is accessible to everyone, and a medical system that is accountable to its patients instead of insurance and pharmaceutical companies seeking to increase their profits.
Families are receiving insufficient support in caring for their loved ones. Currently, a health crisis has the potential to financially destabilize a family through the costs of healthcare and lost wages of workers who must tend to their loved ones. We need a paid family and medical leave program that will sustain a family member who takes a leave of absence from the workforce. We must make childcare and elder care into services that are affordable for everyday people.
I will:
- Support passage of Medicare for All legislation that provides healthcare for everyone
- Advocate for short-term solutions for healthcare such as expansion of Medicaid, funding for CHIP, regulation of drug prices, and moving hospitals away from nickel-and-dime pricing of treatment and towards value-based care.
- Demand our legislature passes a Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (PFMLI) program that pays at least 70% of a workers’ wages while on leave, with a sliding scale beginning at 100%
- Support increased funding for subsidized childcare, making it affordable for low-income families
- Support increased funding and reimbursement rates for childcare and elder care providers so caregivers are guaranteed a fair wage, which will improve quality of service