LEADING ON PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health is a space where social progress meets fiscal responsibility; where private business, government, and the public at large – you and me – can together drive policy that benefits everyone. The single most powerful policy tool available to Texas is Medicaid expansion – whether it be a waiver program with a Texas-specific structure or traditional expansion. Medicaid expansion would increase access to healthcare for around a million people, stabilize family finances, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, add billions in net revenue to the state budget, and add hundreds of billions to the state economy – all without a new tax.

Alas, Medicaid expansion still faces substantial opposition among elected officials. It remains mired in false predictions (like runaway cost) and ideological concerns (like fostering a culture of dependency) that have long since been disproven by experience in other states.

Since joining the Senate in 2019, I’ve made it a top priority to change the dialog surrounding Medicaid expansion. In that time the state has moved considerably closer to recognizing that Medicaid expansion is a moral and economic imperative. The campaign continues. Please take a few minutes to watch my short video on the topic (with fog and animated drawings), and visit my TXMedX page.

Other opportunities to improve health, lower costs, generate economic growth, and help people lead better, more productive lives, abound. We are working to increase competition among insurance companies, incentivizing the use of “social determinants of health” in managed care, lowering insurance rates, supporting new mothers during the first year of their child’s life, and helping people take better care of their own health and understand the resources available to each of us.