Expanding Healthcare to All Texans

Texans are burdened by skyrocketing health care costs and insurance that never seems to cover enough of what you need, that is if they cover that treatment or service at all. The cost of healthcare in Texas continues to exceed the national average which is made worse by Texas being the least insured state in the nation. While some are beholden to special interests and cozy up to the big money insurance lobby, Mihaela has always stood firm and never lost sight of the people. The Texas Legislature must crack down on big insurance companies who leave Texans hanging in their hour of need. Mihaela is committed to lowering the cost of prescription drugs, insurance premiums and copays, and bringing transparency to medical billing. We cannot allow price gougers and greedy executives to take advantage of hardworking Texans and their families.

Mental Health

Healthcare includes taking care of both our bodies and our minds. Mental health care is fundamental to the wellbeing of children and adults. Half of the state’s population lives in a community that doesn’t have enough mental health professionals to serve the need and the largest provider of mental health care in our state is too often the county jail system. Mihaela has dedicated most of her time working on real issues, like mental health care access, that affect real people in Collin County.

I was honored to file the number one priority bill for the Texas affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (HB 4713) and pass this bill through the House. This bill would provide insurance coverage for Coordinated Specialty Care (CSCs) which is the gold standard in treating severe mental health conditions that require the most aggressive treatment, such as first episode psychosis, addiction, and chemical dependency. We advocated for trauma-informed care training in family courts, foster care, schools, and other places vulnerable children often find themselves. Mihaela was honored to collaborate with the Texas School District Police Chiefs Association to pass (HB 4777) through the House of Representatives. This bill would ensure every school resource officer had trauma-informed care and mental health training to identify and support vulnerable children. While the work continues to finish the job on these two bills, Mihaela remains steadfast in her efforts and am proud of what we did manage to accomplish. Mihaela enthusiastically voted to increase funding for local mental health authorities by $16 million dollars to provide more treatment and services to children and young adults. The opioid and fentanyl epidemics are public health emergencies that will require access to evidence-based harm reduction, addiction prevention, treatment, and awareness programs. Mihaela voted to decriminalize fentanyl test strips, increase funding for fentanyl awareness and overdose prevention programs.

During the 88th Legislative Session, Mihaela was proud to joint-author, co-author, or sponsor the following mental health bills that have been signed into law:

HB 671: Creating a veteran’s suicide prevention program through mental health and safe firearm storage campaigns.
HB 1211: hiring more school psychologists through student loan repayment assistance benefits.
HB 1486: Requiring departments to adopt mental health leave policies for 911 operators.
HB 3858: Creating peace officer mental wellness programs.
SB 133: Prohibiting physical restraints and chemical irritants being used against children in schools as these are most often used against vulnerable children with special needs or experiencing mental health conditions.
SB 629: Providing lifesaving Narcan on school campuses to combat overdoses.
SB 867: Provide lifesaving Narcan on college campuses to combat overdoses.

Lowering Healthcare Costs

Texans are burdened by skyrocketing health care costs and insurance that never seems to cover enough of what you need if they cover that treatment or service at all. The cost of healthcare in Texas continues to exceed the national average which is made worse by Texas being the least insured state in the nation. While some are beholden to special interests and cozy up to the big money insurance lobby, Mihaela has always stood firm and never lost sight of the people. The Texas Legislature must crack down on big insurance companies who leave Texans hanging in their hour of need. Mihaela is committed to lowering the cost of prescription drugs, insurance premiums and copays, and bringing transparency to medical billing. We cannot allow price gougers and greedy executives to take advantage of hardworking Texans and their families.

Texas is also one of only nine states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid due to political pettiness at the expense of sick Texans. By failing to expand Medicaid, Texas Republicans are leaving $5 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars in Washington every year.

During the 88th Legislative Session, Mihaela is proud to joint-author, co-author, or co-sponsor the following bills to lower healthcare costs that have been signed into law:

HB 25: Lowering costs for prescriptions drugs by allowing wholesale importing of pharmaceuticals from Canada.
HB 755: Prohibiting big insurance companies from making it harder to access lifesaving prescriptions for autoimmune diseases.
HB 1592: Protecting Texans from surprise medical bills.
HB 2802: Modernizing how Texans can apply for Medicaid.
SB 490: Protecting Texans from frivolous medical charges by requiring hospitals to provide itemized billing for all services and treatments.

Texas Compassionate Use Program

Texans stand to greatly benefit from the expansion of the Texas Compassionate Use Program, which is our version of medical cannabis. Many other states have full-fledged medical use programs that empower physicians and patients to make their own medical decisions. These states have seen remarkably successful outcomes for patients, reduced health care costs, and reduced the number of people relying on highly addictive opioids and prescription pills. Medical cannabis has proven to be effective in the treatment of chronic pain conditions, PTSD, cancer, epilepsy, and so many more physical and neurological diseases. We should not deprive Texans of their medical options or force them to leave our state to find the care they need.