Making Health Care Affordable Again

Lowering Costs for Working Families

Health care costs are crushing mid-Michigan families. Since the big insurance companies and their lobbyists wrote the "Affordable Care Act", those companies have hiked premiums and denied more claims while raking in record profits. Michigan patients need serious reforms that tackle our broken system head-on and take concrete steps to cut costs. This means exploring all options to increase transparency, expand access to affordable health savings accounts that bypass insurance companies, and take on insurers who continue to profit off bankrupting Americans. Reforming our broken health care system won’t be easy, but it's the key to lowering costs and putting patients first.

Taking Action to Make Health Care Affordable Again:

• Introduced the Care Over Profits Act to require insurance companies to use more of the money paid in premiums to cover medical claims, not overhead and corporate profits.
• Introduced the Stop ACA Enrollment Fraud Act to crack down on insurance plan fraud by prohibiting the opening of multiple ACA plans using the same Social Security number and ensuring every patient consents to enrolling in or modifying a health plan.
• Introduced the HSAs for All Act to help more families save for their health care by expanding access to tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs).
• Co-sponsored the Global Fairness in Drug Pricing Act to lower prescription drug prices by codifying President Trump’s “most favored nation” executive order to ensure American patients pay prices comparable to those paid by other countries.
• Co-sponsored the Stop Penalizing Working Seniors Act to help working seniors afford health care by allowing them to continue making tax-free HSA contributions after enrolling in Medicare Part A.
• Co-sponsored the Health Care and Freedom and Choice Act to increase access to flexible stopgap health insurance for patients in a transition between jobs or experiencing other difficulties.
• Introduced the Improving Medicare Services Act to improve customer service for Medicare patients.
• Introduced the Great American Healthcare Plan to expand access to tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs), allow HSAs to pay for healthy food and insurance premiums, require hospitals and insurers to disclose prices clearly, lower prescription costs, and more.
• Introduced the Every Dollar Counts Act to enable patients to shop for more affordable prescriptions out of their insurance company’s network.
• Co-sponsored the PBM Reform Act to take on Pharmacy Benefit Managers and require transparency and accountability in prescription drug pricing.
• Co-sponsored the Improving Senior’s Timely Access to Care Act to streamline the outdated prior authorization process in Medicare Advantage.
• Co-sponsored the Oral Health Products Inclusion Act to to increase access to certain everyday oral care essentials by recognizing them as “qualified medical expenses” that can be purchased with Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
• Co-sponsored the HELP Copays Act to make life-saving prescription medications more affordable for patients with rare, serious, and chronic conditions.
• Sent a letter to CMS Director Dr. Oz to encourage Medicare Part D plans prioritize timely and meaningful access to newly approved, clinically appropriate non-opioid medicines.
• Co-sponsored the Genomic Answers for Children’s Health Act to ensure that children enrolled in Medicaid who have a suspected rare disease or genetic disorder can access genomic sequencing to help get answers more quickly.
• Co-sponsored the Main Street Pharmacy Access Act to empower local pharmacists to play a more active role in community health by allowing Medicare Part B reimbursement for testing and treating common respiratory illnesses.
• Co-sponsored the Provider Reimbursement Stability Act to modernize and update the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) to improve stability for physicians and their patients.

Making Health Care Affordable Again is the third pillar of my Blueprint for a Better America. To learn more about the Blueprint, click here.