Healthcare
Healthcare Is a Right. Not a Privilege.
Every Virginian deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare without fear of losing coverage or drowning in medical debt. Jenn has spent her career protecting and expanding access to care and defending the programs millions of Virginians depend on. That fight continues in Congress every single day.
Defending the Affordable Care Act Jenn has been a fierce defender of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), voting against every Republican effort to gut it and pushing to extend ACA enhanced premium tax credits to keep coverage affordable for millions of Americans. When Congressional Republicans let those credits expire, Jenn sounded the alarm, anchoring Congressional Black Caucus Special Order Hours, cosponsoring legislation, and refusing to let the story go untold. She voted against the Republican funding bill that failed to protect those credits.
Protecting Medicaid Jenn knows Medicaid is a lifeline. She helped lead the fight to expand Medicaid in Virginia during her time in the General Assembly, delivering coverage to 400,000 Virginians. When Congressional Republicans caved to the Trump Administration’s bidding and pushed their Big Ugly Law to cut $880 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, Jenn was on the frontlines on the Energy and Commerce Committee. She fought back during a 26-hour markup to protect healthcare coverage for hundreds of thousands of Virginians, keep our rural hospitals open, and protect Virginia’s state budget from millions in additional costs.
Advancing Maternal and Public Health As a member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, Jenn works daily on the health issues that matter most to Virginians: maternal and infant health, mental health, substance use disorders, and more. After nearly losing her life during childbirth, she brings personal urgency to the fight against maternal mortality, introducing legislation, building coalitions, and refusing to let these disparities be ignored.
Safeguarding Reproductive Justice Jenn believes how, when, and whether to become parents should be left to patients and their providers. Throughout her time in elected office, she has fought to ensure her constituents have the ability to make their own decisions in consultation with their healthcare providers. In the General Assembly, she led passage of the Reproductive Health Protection Act, the first proactive expansion of abortion rights in Virginia’s history. In Congress, she chairs the Reproductive Freedom Caucus’ Abortion Rights and Access Task Force and cosponsored the federal version of her landmark state legislation.