Issue Position: Healthcare

Issue Position

As an emergency department physician, one of the reasons I ran for Congress was the passage of the disastrous Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law has failed to meet its stated goals of increasing access to healthcare and reducing costs. Recent events suggest the law is having the opposite effect. Major insurers are leaving the exchanges and others are predicting significant premium hikes for their customers, making it anything but affordable. Meanwhile, those who do have insurance are still finding it difficult to access care due to widespread physician shortages, especially here in Nevada.

My focus in the House is to expand access to quality, affordable healthcare. To do that we first must repeal the flawed parts of the healthcare law and replace it with reforms that put the patient, not the insurance companies, at the center of our healthcare system. That includes expanding Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Savings Accounts, not limiting them as done in the ACA. Next, we must reverse harmful changes the law made to Medicare and I have introduced the Seniors Health Care Choice Act to do just that. Finally, we must address our severe doctor shortage so patients can access the care they need.

The best way we can reduce our doctor shortage is to train more medical residents right here in Nevada. Studies show that physicians are more likely to practice medicine where they completed their residencies. Because of this, I introduced the Creating Access to Residency Education (CARE) Act that establishes a grant program to encourage underserved states like Nevada to create new or expand current residency programs. More medical residency programs will allow us to train and retain the next generation of Nevada physicians and lead to healthier communities around the state.

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