Quality healthcare should be affordable and accessible to everyone who needs it. 

Instead, we are facing a healthcare crisis in our country that will only get worse. There are millions of Americans who can't afford to pay for basic healthcare needs, our medical workforce is shrinking, and our population is aging. Tennessee ranks 45th in the nation in terms of life expectancy, and has the highest maternal mortality rate of any state.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) kicked millions of Americans off of insurance that they could barely afford, and threatens to close rural hospitals across the country, including 9 in Tennessee. 

Insurance companies and big pharma continue to take advantage of those most in need, increasing consumer costs and denying care while posting record profits. This is unacceptable. 

While these problems affect all of us, these impacts are amplified in the rural and low-income communities that make up East Tennessee. Here, our medical workforce continues to shrink and care shortages emerge as healthcare professionals face rising costs and stagnant reimbursements from insurance companies. At the same time, more than 11% of the district is uninsured since the average 60 year old who paid $445 a month last year for insurance is now facing a monthly cost of $1510.

A healthcare system’s success should be measured by how many patients it heals, not how much profit it generates for its shareholders. 

What I’ll work for in Congress to fix it:

• Rein in insurance company abuses by requiring insurers to spend more of every premium dollar on actual patient care and health outcomes, penalizing companies that routinely deny valid claims, and support antitrust action to break up corporate healthcare monopolies that dominate the market and post record profits while people go without care 

• Work to restore and expand the ACA premium tax credit to make our current healthcare options affordable while ensuring that insurance companies aren’t taking advantage of government dollars

• Advocate for a universal healthcare option, while preserving your freedom to purchase additional insurance coverage

• Champion drug price caps by building on the IRA's Medicare negotiation framework to extend hard price caps to insulin, cancer drugs, and other essential medications for all Americans, not just seniors 

• Empower Medicaid to negotiate drug prices to directly lower your costs for your medications 

• Fight to lift the cap on federally funded medical residencies by supporting the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act which will add thousands of new residency slots annually and address the physician shortage before it becomes a full collapse

• Draw more medical professionals to our region by increasing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates in rural areas

• Increase telehealth availability and coverage 

• Fund community-based health programs so they can solve the biggest problems in their areas

• Support evidence-based substance abuse treatment to address the opioid crisis in our communities