Lowering Medical Costs and Expanding Rural Healthcare
No family should be forced to choose between paying their mortgage and buying life-saving medication. Yet across Missouri’s 4th District, healthcare has become an agonizing financial burden. Compounding the crisis, over a dozen rural Missouri hospitals have shuttered their doors over the past decade, leaving entire communities stranded in medical deserts.
Accessible healthcare is a fundamental right. We need to secure and modernize our healthcare system so that living in a rural area never dictates your quality of care or life expectancy.
Our Priorities for Affordable, Local Healthcare
1. Protecting and Rebuilding Rural Hospitals
When a rural hospital closes, a community loses more than just emergency beds—it loses its economic anchor. We must restructure federal reimbursement rates so that small, community hospitals are compensated based on the actual, higher cost of delivering care in rural areas, rather than being squeezed out by private insurance standards. We will fight to keep local emergency rooms open, retain talented medical staff, and ensure critical care remains minutes away, not hours.
2. Lowering Prescription Drug Prices
Life-saving medications are useless if working families cannot afford them. We will fight to expand the federal government’s authority to negotiate the prices of all essential prescription drugs, capping out-of-pocket costs for seniors and families alike. By capping the cost of life-essential medications like insulin and asthma inhalers, we can crack down on corporate price-gouging by big pharmaceutical companies.
3. Protecting Reproductive Healthcare and Maternity Care
Missouri is facing a severe maternal health crisis, with vast portions of our district classified as maternity deserts. We must fiercely protect reproductive healthcare rights and expand federal funding for local OB-GYN, prenatal, and labor and delivery services. Every expectant mother in our community deserves access to safe, high-quality prenatal care and a nearby facility to safely deliver her baby.
4. Expanding Mental and Behavioral Health Services
Mental health care is healthcare, period. Our rural communities have been heavily impacted by the opioid and substance abuse epidemics, yet local resources remain drastically underfunded. We will prioritize federal grants to integrate mental health and addiction recovery services directly into our existing primary care clinics, expanding telehealth access and training local providers to meet the urgent needs of our neighbors.
The Bottom Line
True security means knowing that if you or your child gets sick, you can receive top-tier, affordable medical care right in your own community. By standing up to big pharmaceutical companies and fixing the broken funding models that abandon rural America, we can ensure a healthier, safer future for every Missourian.