Healthcare is a basic human need and human right. No one should be forced to choose between affordable healthcare and other necessities like food or housing. No one should be forced into bankruptcy because of needed medical treatment and care.

But foolish, short-sided policies have placed healthcare out of reach for millions of us.  We deserve better.

In Congress I will support policies and legislation that will:

• Reduce the cost of insurance, medications, and treatment, and increase access to local healthcare providers like OB/GYNs, specialists, and therapists.

• Restore funding to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

• Increase enrollment in college and university programs to relieve shortages of critical healthcare providers such as nurses, physical therapists (PTs), occupational therapists (OTs), physician’s assistants (PAs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and doctors (including specialists).

• Increase funding for rural residency programs that would increase the number of residents trained in rural areas.

• Restore funding for medical research on cancer; vaccines; and chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, ALS, dementia, and autoimmune disorders.

• Increase funding (e.g. Community Long-term Care) to provide respite to caregivers of disabled children and adults, or for those with chronic conditions like dementia and heart disease.

• Resume reliable data collection on all communicable and chronic diseases, reporting the results accurately and publicly.

• Restore staff and budget cuts to the Veterans Administration (VA), particularly those eliminated with DOGE (which has led to physicians quitting the VA).

• Standardize the audit procedure for Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) providing service under Medicaid and Medicare Advantage programs.  Stop MCOs from clawing back funds from providers on clerical errors or other minor technicalities (a common profit-maximizing tactic that discourages providers from accepting patients with Medicare and Medicaid insurance).

• Increase the number of providers that take Medicare and Medicaid by making some of the requirements standard and universal across all Medicare and Medicaid plans (including MCOs).

• Lower the enrollment age for Medicare to 64 next year. In subsequent years lower it further.

• Lower prescription drug prices.

• Improve access for small business owners to have health care for themselves and their employees.

“The world is not given by [our] fathers, but borrowed from [our] children.” - Wendell Berry

Fossil fuels are going the way of the dinosaurs. The recent gasoline price shock is only the beginning and should be a warning. Clean, renewable energy is the solution.

In Congress, I will support policies and legislation that will:

• Reduce the price and the environmental cost of electricity for us and for the next seven generations.

• Restore and increase funding for renewable energy, including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, etc.

• Speed up the approvals for solar and wind projects including permitting reform. 

• Increase funding for Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers and electric battery research.

• End taxpayer handouts (aka “corporate welfare”) to Big Oil

• Create a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure (e.g. gas-fired power plants) unless it is proven that using fossil fuels as an energy source is both quicker to build and cheaper for rate payers over the 30 years following the build (including the cost of the fuel).

• Require that new and existing data centers bear the full cost of their energy usage, and require that half of this energy be from renewable sources.

• End the practice of passing along the cost for new electricity infrastructure (e.g. transmission lines, power plants) to ratepayers. Billionaire corporations that build warehouses and data centers must pay the full cost for their energy usage and infrastructure.

• Require that data centers use only non-water based cooling systems, thereby protecting our lakes, rivers, and ocean.

• Restore and resume renewable energy power generation projects, including off-shore wind farms, cut by the current administration.

• Ban new drilling in our precious national parks, the Arctic, and coastal lands.

• Charge fossil fuel companies with the full cost of pollution, spills, and land restoration.

• Restore and enforce clean coal standards for all coal-fired power plants.

• Improve the electrical grid to move power to where it is needed.

• Set tough standards for pollution and resume EPA’s core mission of keeping our air and water clean.

• Make polluters pay for the pollution they make.

• Increase research in ways to sustain all life given the warming climate.

• Fund resiliency programs that help people move out of flood-prone areas. End the short-sighted policy of giving federal insurance funds to rebuild where it is likely to flood again.

• Buy more electric vehicles for federal government use.  Incentivize state and county government to buy electric vehicles.

• Subsidize existing rail transport and increase funding to high-speed rail lines for commuters.

• Mandate climate reporting that is consistent and transparent for governments and businesses and require participation.

• Use both carrots and sticks to increase renewable energy projects including grants, tax breaks, fines, taxes, etc.

• Incentivize farmers who use regenerative farming practices. 

• Penalize public service commissions that are serving fossil fuel companies ahead of ratepayers and the public.