Rebecca MacTaggart

“We can’t talk about rising costs and dwindling returns without talking about what really causes them. Corporate money being “invested” in elections, for the purpose of earning “returns”. I put these two words in quotes because these are fairly new uses for them. It was strange to think of political donations as “give $100,000 and you’ll get $1,000,000 back” before Citizen’s United.

I’ve been working on this. We call it “People First, Money Out”. It’s similar to Hawaii’s Act 11 law, passed earlier this year, and now PA has its own version of it, Representative Webster’s House Bill 2728. I am a 100% guaranteed YES vote for every faithful version of this bill until it passes.

Healthcare is the only big-ticket purchase we make without being told the price up front. Hospitals blame insurers, insurers blame drug companies, drug companies blame the middlemen, and the patient is left holding the bill. I’ve spent nearly two decades helping seniors, people with disabilities, and families navigate exactly these systems, and I’ve worked as a certified investigator on claims of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. I know how to identify when an individual is being taken advantage of. It is typically the people least able to push back. I’ll bring that same instinct to a healthcare system that keeps patients in the dark and hands them the bill.

In Harrisburg, I’d start with accountability you can enforce. I’d support real oversight of hospital mergers, with protections for local services and monitoring so the commitments companies make are actually tracked, not forgotten a year later. I’d back a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, tighter rules on the pharmacy middlemen so negotiated discounts reach patients, price transparency with real penalties for ignoring it, and a requirement that insurers publicly justify big rate increases and show the savings reach people’s premiums and what they pay out of pocket. My work on health policy already includes the federal PASTEUR Act, which rewards drug makers for developing lifesaving antibiotics based on access and responsible use rather than sales volume. That’s the principle I’d carry into every fight: healthcare dollars should buy results for patients, not just reward how much gets sold.

This is personal in the 48th. When the Washington Health System became UPMC Washington, we were promised expanded services and major investment. I want that hospital to be strong and that investment delivered, but greater corporate market power should mean better care for us, not fewer choices and longer drives. People First means someone is actually remembering the details and checking to confirm promises are kept.”

Statement submitted by campaign or congressional office