Medical debt remains the largest reason for debt and bankruptcy in America. Healthcare should be accessible, affordable, and built around working families. People should not be refused insurance and life insurance for pre-existing conditions.

1. Make healthcare accessible, not exhausting

• Reduce weeks-long waits for specialists and mental health care

• Expand local access so families don’t have to drive an hour or more for basic services

• Support tele-health while protecting in-person care

• Medicaid and Medicare cuts affect pediatric and pregnant people first. Children and pregnant women need healthcare.

• Funding cuts cause affect everyone. When hospitals in rural areas to close, nurses and doctors lose jobs and move, patients in those areas no longer have hospitals to go to. This in turn causes bad outcomes for patients. Larger hospitals then get overcrowded, and all patients are getting less care. This increases the healthcare issues.

• Veterans deserve stronger healthcare support. Our veterans kept their promise to serve this country. We must keep our promise to care for them — with timely access, mental health support, strong community partnerships, and healthcare that honors their sacrifice.

Healthcare shouldn’t take months to get, hours to drive to, or multiple days off work to access.

Help lower costs so healthcare doesn’t bankrupt families

• Address surprise billing and rising out-of-pocket costs that outpace insurance and paychecks

• Protect families from choosing between medical care, prescriptions, and calling 911 versus groceries or housing

• Support policies that lower costs for prescriptions and routine care

Maternal & Women’s Health Gaps

• Address South Carolina’s poor maternal and infant health rankings. South Carolina State is one of the worst in the nation for fetal-maternal outcomes. That includes preventable outcomes.

• Expand comprehensive prenatal, postpartum, and mental health support. Stronger acknowledgement and support for black mothers, who face higher risks

• Protect access to comprehensive women’s healthcare, not just emergency care

Even in developed areas, access can be uneven.

Treat mental health like physical health

• Expand access to mental health and addiction services

• Support school-based mental health resources for children and teens

• Reduce stigma and increase early intervention

Patients belong at the center of healthcare

• Healthcare should be helpful, healing, and compassionate

• It should be easy to access, easy to understand, and worthy of trust

• Decisions should be driven by patients and providers, not special interests

Healthcare should never bankrupt a family.
It should serve patients, families, and the communities it’s meant to protect.

Healthcare should be healing, accessible, and compassionate. Not confusing, delayed, unaffordable, or impossible to trust.

We should work on affordable healthcare that helps and heals families.

I pledge to work hard on our Healthcare as South Carolina State Representative and help our communities flourish responsibly.