Kyrsten Sinema: Every Arizona family deserves access to quality, affordable health care

As I travel across the state, listening to and meeting with Arizonans, one issue comes up time and time again — health care. Arizonans work hard to take care of their families, and they’re struggling to afford the quality care they need.

Dustin from Tucson said that at one point, his family’s premiums would have taken nearly half of his take-home pay.

In Phoenix, Allison and two of her children have pre-existing conditions. Even though Allison has insurance, her medical bills are still too high. The paperwork she has to deal with could be its own full-time job. She is worried that the dysfunction and chaos she sees coming from Washington could threaten her family’s coverage.

And everywhere I go, I hear from seniors like Max who can’t keep up with the costs of insulin and other prescriptions they need.

This issue is personal for me. My own family struggled to get health care when I was growing up, so I know firsthand why no child should go without a doctor and no family should be bankrupt because of medical bills.

The plain truth is that our country’s health-care system is broken. Every Arizona family deserves access to quality, affordable health care, yet it remains out of reach for too many. Costs are too high. Benefits aren’t good enough. Even those who have coverage are paying too much for it.

Arizonans deserve to know how their leaders will approach a challenge like ensuring all Arizonans have access to quality, affordable care. That’s why I asked Martha McSally to join me in a debate focused specifically on our plans to fix our broken health-care system.

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Here are my priorities:

We need to fix the parts of the system that are broken while protecting the things that are working — like ensuring coverage for the 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions. We need to protect Medicare, Kids Care, and AHCCCS — critical programs that Arizonans count on for affordable, quality care. We need to fight back against misguided proposals like an “age tax” that would force Arizona seniors to pay up to five times more for their care.

We must keep working toward health care that is affordable, accessible, and high quality for Arizonans like Dustin, Allison, Max, and so many others.

The only way to accomplish this is to work together. Too often, steps to lower health-care costs and fix the system have gotten bogged down in partisan politics. That has to stop.

As one of the most independent members of Congress, my approach is to work with anyone to solve problems and get things done. This approach has delivered results. We’ve worked across the aisle to give Arizona small businesses and their employees more flexibility and more affordable health-care plans. We’ve blocked a tax that unnecessarily burdened job-creating businesses. We’ve also taken steps to finally start lowering the price of prescription drugs.

Much more needs to be done. I’ll keep working with anyone—on either side of the aisle who wants to lower Arizonans’ health costs and fix our broken health-care system.

Arizonans need a senator who understands the challenges everyday Arizonans face and who will prioritize solving problems over playing political games and name-calling. That’s exactly what you can count on me to do.