Every American deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare. The United States is alone among developed countries in not guaranteeing universal health coverage. Too many families face crushing medical bills, limited choices, and unnecessary barriers to care.
There is so much we can be doing in the short, medium, and long term to fix our healthcare system and build up to universal coverage.
First: Reverse Republican Damage
Republicans just passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that will devastate healthcare for millions of Americans starting in 2027. We must act immediately to prevent this catastrophe:
- Reverse the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that will force community hospitals to close and deny healthcare to children, seniors, and people with disabilities—all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires
- Stop the Medicaid work requirements that will strip healthcare from 10.5 million Americans by forcing them to file paperwork every month proving they work 80 hours—even if they’re caring for family members or have disabilities
- Protect the Affordable Care Act from ongoing sabotage, including attempts to make enrollment harder and let insurance companies discriminate based on pre-existing conditions
- Restore funding for community health centers that serve as lifelines in underserved communities
Republicans are literally taking healthcare away from kids and seniors to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. We need Democrats in Congress who will fight to reverse this cruelty and protect healthcare as a human right.
Second: Lower Costs for Those Who Have Private Insurance Now
- Expand Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices beyond seniors to all Americans, using the government’s bargaining power to force pharmaceutical companies to offer fair prices for life-saving medications—no more paying 3-4 times what other countries pay for the same drugs.
- Cap out-of-pocket costs for everyone, not just those on Medicare, by limiting annual medical expenses to a reasonable percentage of income so that no family faces bankruptcy from medical bills, even if they have insurance.
- Crack down on insurance middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers who pocket billions in profits by manipulating drug prices, denying patients access to medications their doctors prescribe, and driving independent pharmacies out of business.
- Support value-based care that rewards quality outcomes, not quantity of procedures, incentivizing doctors and hospitals to keep patients healthy rather than profiting from unnecessary tests and procedures that drive up costs without improving health.
Third: Expand Coverage Toward Universal Healthcare
- Create a public option healthcare plan that anyone can choose, offering enhanced benefits including dental, vision, hearing, and prescription drugs with an out-of-pocket spending cap, while allowing employers to continue offering private coverage if preferred — consistent with the “Medicare Extra for All” plan.
- Guarantee universal coverage through automatic enrollment of newborns and anyone without insurance, ensuring no American falls through the cracks while preserving free choice of doctors and hospitals.
- Control costs by leveraging government negotiating power to set fair prices for prescription drugs and medical services, preventing providers from charging more than Medicare rates and reducing overall healthcare spending.
- Build toward a single-payer plan like Medicare for All while preserving choice by gradually expanding the public option as more Americans choose it over private insurance, proving that government-run healthcare delivers better results at lower cost.
Massachusetts has led the nation in healthcare innovation—from our pioneering universal coverage model to our world-class medical institutions. In Congress, I’ll fight to ensure federal policies support continued innovation while making quality healthcare accessible to all Americans, not just the wealthy or well-connected.
