Health Care Accessibility

Making Health Care More Affordable and Accessible for All

I believe every American deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care. That’s why I’ve worked with both parties to lower costs, expand access, protect critical programs, and strengthen the health care system Long Islanders depend on.

Putting Patients Before Politics

As a Naval Officer deployed overseas, I saw health care systems in both wealthy and developing nations. Those experiences reinforced my belief that America has the world’s finest doctors, hospitals, medical professionals, and technology.

But having the best health care means little if people can’t afford it.

For decades, both parties have fallen short on health care affordability.

Democrats promised the Affordable Care Act would lower costs and let Americans keep the doctors and plans they liked. Instead, many families have faced rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs while major insurance companies have earned record profits.

Republicans have rightly criticized the ACA’s shortcomings but haven’t always built the consensus necessary for comprehensive reform. In 2025, we passed the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act in the House, but it has yet to secure the 60 Senate votes necessary to advance.

And here in Governor Kathy Hochul’s New York, enormous Medicaid spending combined with fraud, improper payments, and inadequate oversight threatens resources intended for vulnerable patients.

We can—and must—do better.

Lowering Health Insurance Premiums

For too long, Washington’s answer to rising health care costs has been to spend more taxpayer money subsidizing increasingly expensive insurance instead of addressing why insurance costs so much in the first place.

I voted for the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, which increases competition, expands affordable coverage options, improves transparency, reforms pharmacy benefit managers, and reduces patients’ cost-sharing expenses.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would lower gross benchmark premiums by an average of 11% through 2035 while reducing the federal deficit by $35.6 billion.

At the same time, when enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits were set to expire, I broke with my party to support temporary relief so nearly 50,000 Long Islanders wouldn’t face an immediate premium increase while Congress pursued lasting reforms.

My approach is straightforward: protect patients from sudden cost increases today while fighting to lower the actual cost of health care tomorrow.

How Hochul Chose Migrants Over Working New Yorkers’ Essential Plans

Democrats claim Republicans eliminated New York’s Essential Plan and took health insurance away from hundreds of thousands of people. That is not what happened.

New York’s core Essential Plan continues providing premium-free coverage to approximately 1.3 million lower-income New Yorkers. What changed was Governor Hochul’s 2024 expansion to people earning between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty level, which depended heavily on federal Premium Tax Credit funding.

As it relates to the Essential Plan, with my support, Congress changed federal health care subsidies for noncitizens, not American citizens. Congress made no changes to citizens’ eligibility for Essential Plan coverage. I supported those reforms because taxpayer-funded health benefits should prioritize American citizens and long-term legal residents, not illegal immigrants and recent arrivals.

Governor Hochul ultimately ended the federal waiver supporting her expansion and approximately 450,000 New Yorkers became ineligible for the expanded Essential Plan, including more than 63,000 Long Islanders. Albany Democrats proposed using state resources to bridge the coverage gap, but Governor Hochul chose another course.

The sad irony is that Albany said it could not afford billions more to preserve coverage for working- and middle-class New Yorkers while Governor Hochul’s state government planned roughly $4.3 billion in spending on migrants’ housing, health care, and legal services.  Albany found billions for people who recently crossed our border, but when working New Yorkers faced losing health coverage, the Governor said the state couldn’t afford to fill the gap.

So when Democrats claim I voted to “eliminate the Essential Plan,” they aren’t telling New Yorkers the whole story. Congress did not eliminate citizens’ eligibility, the core Essential Plan remains intact, and Albany must take responsibility for how its expansion was financed and ultimately scaled back.

Protecting Safety-Net Hospitals & Medicaid

Medicaid should be protected and strengthened for the vulnerable Americans it was created to serve.

When long-delayed Medicaid cuts originally enacted under the Affordable Care Act threatened safety-net hospitals, I introduced the bipartisan Save Our Safety-Net Hospitals Act and worked across the aisle to prevent reductions in Disproportionate Share Hospital funding, helping protect Stony Brook Medicine and safety-net hospitals nationwide.

When Congress later considered broader Medicaid reforms, I joined fellow Republicans in opposing reforms that would take coverage from vulnerable Americans who legitimately depend on the program.

We protected those beneficiaries while strengthening eligibility verification and targeting fraud, waste, and abuse.

Fighting Medicaid fraud isn’t a cut to health care. It helps protect Medicaid for patients who actually need it.

Lowering Prescription Drug Costs

Prescription drugs only work if patients can afford them.

I’ve supported reforms to increase drug-price transparency, reduce costs for seniors, lower out-of-pocket expenses, and hold pharmacy benefit managers and other health care middlemen accountable.

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act also strengthens accountability and transparency for pharmacy benefit managers.

Our goal shouldn’t be protecting insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, middlemen, or government bureaucracies. It should be delivering better care at a lower cost for patients.

Removing Barriers to Care

Too often, patients and doctors know what treatment is needed only to encounter unnecessary insurance bureaucracy or limited access.

I supported the bipartisan Safe Step Act to reduce insurance barriers that delay access to doctor-prescribed medications. I’ve also supported efforts to expand telehealth, improve seniors’ access to medications, strengthen opioid prevention and treatment, and expand access to over-the-counter birth control.

Whether someone lives near a major medical center or farther out on the East End, their ZIP code shouldn’t determine whether they can access quality care.

Health Care for Those Who Served

As a Navy Veteran, ensuring America keeps its promise to those who served is personal to me.

I’ve worked to modernize the VA, protect Veterans’ access to care, and strengthen mental health services, while supporting substantial investments in Veterans’ health care through my work on the House Appropriations Committee.

I introduced the bipartisan Vietnam Veterans Liver Fluke Cancer Study Act to help Veterans suffering from illnesses potentially connected to their service.

I’ve also fought for the heroes of September 11th, leading bipartisan efforts to address staffing shortages threatening the World Trade Center Health Program and the care our 9/11 First Responders earned through their service and sacrifice.

Preserving Patient Choice

Health care decisions should be made by patients, families, and their doctors—not politicians, insurance companies, or government bureaucrats.

That’s why I opposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates that threatened Americans’ jobs and protected access to IVF and contraception.

On abortion, I reject the extremes of both parties. I oppose a federal abortion ban, support access during the first trimester, and support exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

Better Care, Lower Costs, Greater Access

America shouldn’t have to choose between excellent health care and affordable health care. We should demand both.

That means lowering insurance and prescription costs, protecting Medicare and Medicaid for eligible Americans, supporting our hospitals, caring for Veterans and First Responders, fighting fraud, and removing barriers between patients and their doctors.

I’ll continue working with—or standing up to—either party to pursue practical reforms that put patients first, lower costs, and make quality health care more accessible for every Long Island family.