Healthcare and Seniors

Protecting Medicare and Medicaid

All Americans deserve the right to quality, affordable healthcare. The United States currently spends 2.5 times the average of other industrialized countries on healthcare per capita, yet nearly 30 million people are uninsured and at least 41 million are unable to afford expensive co-pays and deductibles. Meanwhile, the healthcare industry executives measure success in profits instead of the wellbeing of patients. It is clear that our current healthcare system is not working for all Americans, and Congress needs to pass legislation that address this issue.

Medicare and Medicaid are critical components of our nation’s social safety net and provide access to care to some of our must vulnerable populations. It is vital that we protect and expand these essential programs in order to lower costs for seniors and decrease healthcare costs for taxpayers across the board. I am thrilled that Medicare can now negotiate directly with drugmakers to improve access to some of the costliest single-source brand-name Medicare Part B and Part D drugs. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare now also covers all recommended vaccines and, starting in 2025, will cap all prescription drugs at $2,000 per year. We must continue building on these successes to expand Medicare’s coverage to include essential dental, vision, and hearing benefits and bolster traditional Medicare’s coverage of the over 65 million Americans enrolled.

Finally, I am a staunch advocate of the Medicare for All Act. This bill will guarantee every resident of the United States access to healthcare while expanding and improving the benefits of traditional Medicare. Medicare for All will cost less, cover more people and provide a much need change to our current healthcare system. Please know that I will continue work with my colleagues in Congress to fight to expand healthcare to all Americans.

Preserving Social Security

Social Security is a promise that we have made to our nation’s seniors. Work hard, pay your share, and you will be taken care of in your retirement. Seniors have contributed to Social Security by paying payroll taxes during their working years and they have earned their benefits.

The protection and expansion of Social Security must be one of Congress’ top priorities. More than 10,000 Baby Boomers become eligible for Social Security every day, yet the Trust Fund is set to deplete in nine years- triggering a 20% across the board benefit cut for seniors, veterans, the disabled and their dependents.

That is why I am an original cosponsor of the Social Security 2100 Act, legislation that would increase benefits across-the-board, improve the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) to reflect seniors’ true costs, and repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) that currently penalize many public servants, among other reforms. For teachers like myself and other current and former public servants in California, this elimination of the WEP and GPO is critical to receiving their hard-earned benefits, which is why I am also proud to cosponsor the Social Security Fairness Act—another piece of legislation that focuses on eliminating these outdated and unfair rules.

Lowering Costs

As the  costs of healthcare plans and prescription drugs continue to rise to inaccessible levels, more needs to be done to ensure everyone can access the quality healthcare and medications they need. The Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress took major strides toward increasing affordability with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which together capped the out-of-pocket cost for insulin at $35 and created a year cap ($2,000 in 2025) on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs in Medicare. Nearly 15 million people are saving an average of $800 per year on their health insurance premiums, and the nation’s uninsured rate has reached an historic low.

Every American deserves access to affordable healthcare and prescription drugs, and I will continue fighting to lower healthcare costs, improve access for low-income families, and push for greater transparency in pricing, billing, and other healthcare industry practices.

Reproductive Healthcare

The government has no place in the private medical decisions of any person. I am a proud member of the Pro Choice Caucus and am committed to working towards reproductive freedom for all nationwide.

Following the Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) many Americans’ reproductive rights are determined by the state in which they live. We must  fight to ensure abortions, contraception, and reproductive healthcare is accessible for all nationwide. I am original cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill which creates a new legal protection for the right to provide and access abortion care, free from medically unnecessary restrictions and bans on abortion. I am also an original cosponsor of the Right to Contraception Act, which protects both patients seeking contraceptives and the healthcare provider’s right to provide contraceptive care and related information.

Read my statement following the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022

Health Care Workforce 

Residents of the Inland Empire struggle to find access to care. I support the efforts by the Medicare Graduate Medical Education (GME) Program that helps defer the cost of residency positions and trains physicians to meet California’s growing health care needs. We also need to increase our nursing workforce. As a former Riverside Community College (RCC) Board Member, I am proud of the first-rate education and training that the RCC School of Nursing offers students in the Inland Empire. I am a strong supporter of the Riverside Community College Districts Inland Empire Technical Trade Center (IETTC) and we must continue to invest in regional job training. I will continue work to ensure that we strengthen incentives to draw health care providers to our region.

Healthcare and Senior Related Community Project Funding Secured

Under revised guidelines issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative may request funding for projects in their community each fiscal year – although only a handful may actually be funded. Projects are restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities are permitted to receive funding.

Behavioral Health Wellness Center, $5 million (FY 2023)

Funding would be used to expand the Moreno Valley Medical Campus to include 180,000 additional square feet of space housing 96 to100 inpatient acute behavioral health beds, emergency treatment services, and space for support staff. Specifically, the plan will replace and consolidate the current outdated RUHS - Emergency Treatment Services/Inpatient Treatment Facility with a modern, centrally located center on the existing RUHS-MC Moreno Valley campus.

Arlanza Family Health Center Revitalization Project, $2 million (FY 2023)

Funding would be used to acquire capital equipment and renovate a portion of the Arlanza Family Health Center (AFHC), a 15,370 square-foot community health center located in the Arlanza neighborhood in Riverside, CA.

Jurupa Unified Children & Family Services Behavioral Health Center, $2.62 million (FY 2023)

Funding would be used to modify use of the facilities located at 3924 Riverview Dr. Jurupa Valley to mitigate the cost in establishing provider services for Behavioral Health and co-locating Alma Family Services in partnership with Riverside University Health Systems - Behavioral Health.

Integrated Solutions for Youth Recovery and Resiliency, $625,880 (FY 2022)

The project combines three best practice models to intervene in youth mental, emotional, and behavioral health crisis, help them recover from those crisis as well as the effects of violence and drug abuse in their lives, prevent recidivism, and empower them with the clinical, socio-emotional, socio-economic, and social-cognitive supports required for whole, healthy, and productive lives outside of the cycles of generational poverty and in the wake of impacts exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.