Healthcare

Carolyn will fight for:

• Ensuring universal access to affordable, quality health care by strengthening the Affordable Care Act (ACA), protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and creating a robust affordable public option health insurance plan for individuals and small businesses.
• Lower prescription drug costs by allowing the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs.
• Ending surprise billing.

Health care policy is personal to Carolyn. For ten years, Carolyn’s father suffered from a debilitating, prolonged illness and her mother cared for him. Her parents drained their bank accounts to pay for her father’s prescription medications. Now every day, she hears from Georgia families struggling with the rising costs of prescription drugs, insurance costs, and costs of medical care. Across our country, there are seniors who can't afford the care they need. Parents struggle to afford the insulin their children depend on to survive, and families and businesses are paying staggering sums for basic health insurance. This is a crisis. 

Carolyn will fight for the millions of Georgians who are either uninsured, under insured, or struggle with the costs of insurance and prescription drugs. Due to both poor state government policy decisions (i.e. refusing to expand Medicaid) and the Trump Administration’s war on the Affordable Care Act, Georgia has the third highest rate (13.7% or 1.4 million Georgians) of those without health insurance, ranks 50th in childhood immunizations, 47th in low birthweight babies, 40th in diabetes, 43rd in infant mortality, and Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Health outcomes are much worse for low-income and minority communities, particularly with respect to maternal and infant mortality.     

Carolyn believes strongly that affordable, quality health care is the right of all Georgians. The Affordable Care Act was a great step forward in guaranteeing that right, but the current pandemic has highlighted the fact that more needs to be done. We must begin to separate access to health insurance from our places of employment. Losing a job should not mean losing health insurance. Carolyn supports the creation of a robust public health insurance option to compete with private sector options already offered on the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 50.  Carolyn will encourage the Governor and General Assembly to expand Medicaid and help over 500,000 currently uninsured Georgians obtain health insurance. 

To decrease the cost of health insurance, Carolyn will work to increase subsidies and cap premiums for those health insurance policies offered on the exchanges, while ensuring that all insurance plans cover essential health services. Carolyn will also fight all efforts to eliminate the ACA’s protection for people with pre-existing conditions.

The high cost of prescription drugs is a significant barrier to keeping Georgians healthy. Carolyn supports efforts to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription medications. Due to the size of the Medicare and the potential public option plan population, the government has significant leverage to negotiate lower prices. Carolyn supports allowing the importation of drugs deemed safe by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from other countries and efforts to improve the supply and reduce the cost of generic drugs. 

Carolyn will also work to end surprise billing. Surprise billing occurs when patients are treated at an in-network hospital but is treated by an out-of-network physician.  About 20 percent of visits to the emergency room and 10 percent of elective in-patient care results in a surprise bill. A surprise bill can result in a significant out-of-pocket cost to patients. Carolyn supports the legislation that will protect patients and take them out of the middle of insurer-provider disputes.