Healthcare

When you have your health, you have everything.

I know that personally. A health scare changed the way I think about care, coverage, and how quickly life can turn upside down. In a moment, everything else falls away. What matters is whether you can see a doctor, get the tests you need, afford treatment, and focus on getting well instead of worrying about the bill.

The Reality of the Crisis

That is why it is so wrong that Greg Abbott has refused to let Texas bring back the federal healthcare dollars we have already paid. Texans do not get a discount from the IRS. Our families pay in, but Abbott has blocked funding that could expand coverage, lower costs, and help keep rural hospitals open.

To understand the human cost of these failures, read my

Healthcare: The Mystery, the Misery, the Mistake, and the Mission

personal reflection: Healthcare: The Mystery, The Misery on Substack.

For too long, Texas has kept healthcare coverage far too limited. Many adults have been locked out unless they were pregnant, a child, living with a disability, or a very low-income senior. That approach is not just cruel — it is costly. When people cannot get preventive care, they wait until small problems become emergencies. Families suffer, hospitals absorb uncompensated care, and the costs get shifted to everyone else.

My Plan for Assessable Care

Expanding coverage is the practical choice. It would help more Texans get care earlier, strengthen the risk pool, reduce cost shifting, and provide a lifeline to rural hospitals that are struggling to survive.

Texas should use our own federal dollars to cover more people, lower costs, protect rural hospitals, and build a healthcare system that treats both physical and mental health with the seriousness they deserve.

For 30 years, Republicans have ruled Texas. For 14 of those years, Texas has refused to accept Medicaid expansion—benefits that we, the taxpayers, have already paid for through our federal income taxes. Our politicians have left a vast number of Texans to fend for themselves, while the legislators themselves enjoy 100% covered health insurance for themselves.

Mental Health is Health.

Healthcare today also means recognizing that mental health is health. More Texans are turning to online tools, including AI, when they are anxious, depressed, isolated, or in crisis. These tools can help with information and support, but they are not a substitute for trained professionals, and they should never operate without clear guardrails.

We need strong standards for AI in mental health: clear warnings that it is not a licensed clinician, immediate escalation when someone may be in crisis or at risk of self-harm, protection against harmful or manipulative responses, strong privacy safeguards, and real human oversight. Technology should support care — not replace it, and never put vulnerable people at greater risk.

Accountability and Transparency

We must end the era of the healthcare 'grift.' When insurance companies prioritize profits over patients, it is the people of District 14 who pay the price. I believe in a system of radical accountability. By expanding the coverage we've already paid for with our federal taxes, we can ensure that qualifying Texans who are not pregnant can also access help when their employers do not provide insurance. This will help close the "gap" we've been struggling with for at least 14 years. The 'superpower' of our healthcare system is actually healing people, not protecting private profit margins.