Quality Healthcare is a Human Right for Every Community

Background

Lauren believes that healthcare is not a luxury. It is not a privilege for the well-connected. It is a human right. Every family in this district and country deserves care they can easily access and care that won't bankrupt them to receive.

We are in the middle of a doctor shortage. Nearly half our neighbors are on Medicaid or have no insurance at all. With a median age of 39.9 in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, a significant portion of our population relies on Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid to cover healthcare and basic needs. It doesn't stop there. Too many families have no dental coverage, no vision coverage, and no access to mental health care.

Our rural hospitals are disappearing. More than 30 rural hospitals in Louisiana are at risk of closing their doors because Washington keeps cutting the funding that keeps them open.

When it comes to women's health, the crisis is even deeper. Louisiana has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. We don't have enough OB/GYNs. We have maternity care deserts. And Black mothers in this state are dying at rates no family should ever have to accept. Lauren believes that high quality healthcare includes reproductive justice and bodily autonomy.

Our veterans are caught in this crisis too. Louisiana is home to tens of thousands of veterans, many in rural parishes where the nearest VA facility is hours away. When rural hospitals close, veterans lose the community care options they depend on. They served this country and they shouldn't have to fight another battle just to see a doctor.

For millions of seniors and people with disabilities, Medicaid's promise isn't just coverage. It means the ability to stay in their own home or near their own family instead of being sent to a nursing home or institution. That's what Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) makes possible. However, while Medicaid is required to cover nursing home care, HCBS is still classified as an "optional" benefit and one that states can scale back whenever budgets get tight or the political winds shift. That gap has always been a vulnerability. Now it's being tested directly. In June 2026, the Department of Justice issued new guidance signaling the administration may not enforce the community-integration mandate established by the Supreme Court's landmark Olmstead decision. That decision comes as HCBS is already under strain nationwide, following the largest Medicaid cuts in the program's history. The message this sends is unmistakable: the guardrails that kept disabled and aging Americans out of institutions are loosening, right as the safety net underneath them is being cut. Lauren knows what's at stake here personally, through her own family's experience with disability advocacy, and as a special education teacher who has spent 17 years fighting for the dignity and independence of the students and families she has served.

Lauren’s Priorities in Congress

• Cosponsor Medicare for All so that we have a system of care based on need, not profit, with no premiums or deductibles standing in the way
• Push to expand the Affordable Care Act and work to close the current Medicaid coverage gap
• Cosponsor legislation to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Medicaid and Medicare (building on efforts like the Medicare Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit Act)
• Ensure that mental and behavioral health services are included as part of comprehensive health insurance coverage
• Expand funding for community health centers and clinics, including those that address mental and behavioral health
• Address physician and healthcare worker shortages by expanding funding for the National Health Service Corps, the Conrad 30 Waiver Program, and graduate medical education residencies. This will help incentivize doctors to practice in Louisiana and other underserved states.
• Lower prescription drug costs including capping insulin costs and decrease out-of-pocket costs for essential care
• Cosponsor the Women's Health Protection Act to protect a patient's right to bodily autonomy and to make their own health decisions, free from political interference, codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, and ensure that women’s health is no longer put at risk due to Louisiana’s restrictive laws around reproductive rights and access to birth control methods
• Cosponsor the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act to address racial disparities in maternal mortality directly.
• Expand rural OB-GYN residency incentives and telehealth maternity care access for maternity care deserts.
• Support extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full 12 months in every state.
• Adequately resource the VA and push back against efforts to privatize it, ensuring our military veterans have access to a range of services for their conditions and needs, including mental health support
• Protect and expand funding for HIV/AIDS programs, including the Ryan White Program and PrEP access
• Oppose federal legislation or amendments that restrict gender affirming care
• Codify Olmstead v. L.C. integration mandate and oppose efforts to defund home and community-based services that allow disabled and elderly Americans to live with freedom and dignity
• Fight in Congress to make Home and Community-Based Services a mandatory Medicaid benefit, so that no one is forced into a nursing home simply because a state waiver ran out, a waitlist grew too long, or a future administration decided Olmstead no longer applies