Jason Cullen

Thank you for taking the time to write and for sharing Stephanie’s story with me. I can only imagine how hard that road has been for your family. The idea that you almost lost your home because your daughter needed lifesaving care is something that should never happen in this country. No parent should have to carry that kind of financial burden just for trying to keep their child alive.

I also appreciate the work you’re doing with Family Voices and the families you help through SPAN. Hearing directly from people who are living this every day is incredibly important.

To answer your question directly, yes. I’m committed to working to lower healthcare costs for families like yours.

One thing we have to start with is bringing real transparency to healthcare pricing. Families should know what care is going to cost before they receive it. Right now the system is so complicated that people often don’t understand the bill until it’s too late.

We also need to tackle the cost of prescription drugs. Too many families are paying outrageous prices for medications that they depend on every day. Increasing competition, speeding up access to generics, and stopping the games that keep prices artificially high would help bring those costs down.

Another issue I’ve been talking about a lot on the campaign trail is consolidation in healthcare. Over the last decade we’ve seen huge companies buying up more and more of the system. Insurance companies are buying pharmacy benefit managers, pharmacies, and even doctor practices. At the same time, large hospital systems keep getting bigger and swallowing up smaller providers. When the same few corporations control more of the system, families lose choices and prices almost always go up. That’s something Congress should be paying a lot more attention to.

Finally, we need stronger protections so families facing serious or long-term medical conditions aren’t pushed into financial ruin. Your story about the Catastrophic Illness Relief Fund shows how important those kinds of protections can be. No family dealing with repeated hospitalizations or complex care should have to worry about losing their home on top of everything else.

I know none of this is easy, but families like yours deserve a system that supports you instead of making an already difficult situation even harder.

Thank you again for reaching out and for everything you do for other families. Please give Stephanie my best.

Sincerely,

Jason Cullen