Healthcare and Community Wellness

Across the country, families are feeling the weight of rising healthcare costs and ongoing instability in coverage. Premiums continue to rise. Deductibles remain high. Prescription drug prices strain household budgets. Even insured families delay care because of out of pocket costs.

Healthcare should never force someone to choose between medical treatment and basic necessities.

Maryland has made progress in expanding coverage and protecting consumers, but affordability and access remain daily concerns. Coverage only matters if it is affordable, usable, and dependable. The next phase of healthcare leadership must focus on lowering costs, stabilizing markets, and strengthening accountability across the system.

I implemented federal healthcare policy at the highest levels. I executed provisions of the Affordable Care Act, translating statutory language into operational systems that expanded coverage for millions of Americans. When the ACA faced repeal efforts years later, I worked on protecting and defending the law, fully aware of the structural consequences that dismantling it would have on states, insurers, providers, and families.

During the COVID 19 public health emergency, I operated within large scale healthcare response efforts where federal guidance, regulatory action, and real time execution determined whether systems held or failed. I understand how reimbursement policy affects hospital solvency. I understand how exchange stability impacts premiums. I understand how federal state coordination determines whether families experience access or disruption.

I do not approach healthcare as theory. I understand the architecture of the system and how policy decisions move markets, providers, and patients.

In Annapolis, I will advance policies that reduce out of pocket costs, protect coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions, strengthen Maryland’s insurance marketplace, increase price transparency, and expand access to preventive and behavioral health care. Affordability must be measurable. Coverage must be stable. Systems must be accountable.

Healthcare policy is not abstract. It determines whether a parent fills a prescription, whether a senior receives follow up care, and whether a small business can sustain employee coverage.

Maryland deserves leadership that understands healthcare from inside the system and knows how to strengthen it without destabilizing it. I have implemented complex federal healthcare policy before. I am prepared to protect and improve it at the state level.