Issue Position: Healthcare

Press Release

We need a free market, patient-centered health care system. Unfortunately, ObamaCare was a massive government takeover of the health care system, and it has been an unmitigated disaster. Congress needs to immediately repeal this horrible law, and the president needs to sign it. ObamaCare has caused health care costs to go up, has kicked millions of Americans off of their health insurance plans, and has increased taxes, all of which have been detrimental to the health care system.

We need to replace it with a health care system that puts patients first, encourages competition, allows consumers to buy health insurance across state lines, and expands health savings accounts.

I understand all too well the experience of being a patient in socialized medicine, both in the military and the VA. When no one is held accountable, and there's no competition, quality of care suffers and prices skyrocket. We must give states the flexibility to experiment with solutions that deliver the cheapest and highest quality care to the most people. As Americans, we should all agree on this common-sense goal.

We have to look at the insurance market differently. When we force insurance to cover routine visits or treatments, the costs of those treatments naturally skyrocket and premiums follow suit. The employer-based health insurance deduction lowers wages and hides the actual costs of healthcare. As a result, health care is overused without any measurable improvement in health outcomes.

Medicaid continues to grow without actually improving Americans' health. When Medicaid enrollees increase drastically, as they did under Obamacare, we reduce the quality of care for our poorest and neediest patients. We need to block grant Medicaid payments to states so they can experiment effectively. I have faith that Texas will use that money effectively and efficiently, and ensure that the neediest Texans get the health care they need. The federal government may mean well, but it isn't doing well.

It is time for Congress to take on out-of-control drug prices, and beat back the pharmaceutical lobby. We must change the incentives for hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies so that free market forces can effectively reduce drug prices. We need more transparency in research and development costs, and we need the FDA to assess the effectiveness of new drugs compared to existing drugs, so that consumers are not tricked into buying more expensive, but less effective medicine. We need to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and establish common formularies, much like the VA does. This encourages free market forces to drive down costs.

One of the most promising areas of medical innovation is the expansion of telemedicine, where medical professionals treat patients across great distances using electronic communications. A significant barrier to telemedicine is the requirement that physicians obtain licenses from each state in which their current or potential patients are, or may be, located. We must fix this. It is easy to do, and it is common-sense policy.

If elected I will immediately call together a Houston-based healthcare commission to tackle these problems.

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