We believe:

• Health care is a basic human right.
• In a commitment to a comprehensive range of healthcare services that includes health promotion and disease prevention.Ensuring public health and managing public health crises are governmental duties. Hence, establishing sustainable public health infrastructures is crucial to fostering overall well-being for everyone.
• Comprehensive health care encompasses access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care services including contraception and abortion, and to gender-affirming health care, alternative health care, and end-of-life care.  Further, all Washington residents must have easy access to comprehensive health care that is culturally and linguistically competent, financially and physically accessible, and not subject to faith-based restrictions
• An affordable universal, single-payer system is essential for delivering equitable and effective health care that meets both individual and public health needs.
• Healthcare services should be publicly owned and operated
• Women’s reproductive rights must be protected by federal legislation.
• Health care should not result in bankruptcy or significant financial hardship for individuals and families
• Teens have autonomy and agency over the decision to have an abortion, therefore, parental notification or consent laws for minors seeking an abortion should be opposed.
• All health care insurance systems should be non-profit.
• Health care systems, treatment options, public health, and emergency response plans should not deny or restrict access to comprehensive care or prioritize care based on racial or ethnic identity, marital status, intellectual, mental,or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, immigration status, or residency status.
• Medicare should be expanded to eliminate privatization and should include all benefits now offered by Medicare Advantage plans.
• Medicare Part D privatized/for-profit drug coverage should be discontinued. Medicare should have it’s own pharmaceutical coverage, negotiating fair prices for drugs and premiums. There should be amnesty on exorbitant late-joining penalties for those who could not afford the private insurance premiums
• Drug and medical services pricing should be transparent,  readily available and drug formularies should only be dictated by doctor and patient, not by pharmacy benefit managers.
• Taxpayer-funded research and development for vaccines and pharmaceuticals should serve the public interest rather than fueling exorbitant profits for commercial enterprises.
• Taxpayer-funded institutions must be transparent in any use of animals and must commit to phasing out any use of animals when other means of research are known and available.
• All Washington residents should have parity in accessing and coverage of physical and behavioral health care, including easy and affordable access to mental health screening and resources, in-patient and out-patient treatment, and substance use treatment and recovery.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must have expanded powers by law to negotiate prices for medical devices and drugs in a timely manner. 
• Telehealth is a growingly useful tool for a wide variety of patients and providers, post Covid pandemic. When appropriate for care, use of video conferencing, and telephone in case where internet access/speed is an issue, should be supported by health care facilities and insurance, not phased out.
• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) should operate autonomously with expanded funding, free from politically motivated limitations.
• Washington state residents are best served by healthcare and behavioral health professionals who come from and are connected to the communities they serve.  Adequate funding should be provided for the recruitment, education, training, and retention of such health care and behavioral health professionals, particularly those working in underserved areas and populations. Full funding should be provided for the education of all medical, nursing, mental health, substance use, and other professionals who pursue a career in local, state or federal Public Health agencies.
• Providing education grants and student-debt forgiveness for primary care providers, nurses, advanced practice providers, and behavioral health professionals in exchange for service to underserved populations, with a focus on recruiting individuals to serve their own communities.
• Providing education grants and student-debt forgiveness for primary care providers, in exchange for service to underserved populations; 
• We have an acute shortage of all levels of long term care workers. Training and retention programs are needed to address this critical shortage.
• A safety net should be provided for rural hospitals and community health centers. 
• Cannabis should be removed from schedule 1 status.
• Antitrust and patent law violations by pharmaceuticals that lead to artificially high drug prices should be aggressively prosecuted.
• Programs to train, recruit and retain credentialed and non-credentialed behavioral health workers should be expanded.
• All healthcare mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations should be highly regulated to ensure continued access to comprehensive health care and prevent any negative impact on marginalized or rural communities.
• Financial and social services, including respite care support for family caregivers should be expanded, support for family caregivers should be expanded and social services, including respite care.
• Ensuring prompt Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of new treatments based on solid data from reputable clinical trials that demonstrate both safety and effectiveness is a vital human service.
• Abortion is a valid and critical part of reproductive healthcare, and access to safe and legal abortion must continue to be further protected through a state constitutional amendment.
• A health and dental care medical loss ratio of 85% should be established to require that 85% of insurance premium payments for health and dental go to direct patient care, not Executive compensation.
• In ensuring a woman’s right to choose abortion without interference from any governmental, ideological or religious entity.
• We should require transparency in billing from insurance companies and healthcare providers.Patients need better itemized bills and a breakdown of cost and savings so every Washingtonian can easily understand and compare healthcare costs.
• Health care for a person shall be managed by that individual and chosen healthcare provider without the imposition of government laws that individual shall have autonomy over their body.
• Training programs for all health care professionals should require nutrition courses.
• Require testing and regulation of dyes and other potentially harmful ingredients in cosmetics and in clothing.
• Healthcare organizations, companies and agencies will institute union supported staffing models to improve patient safety and staff safety. This promotes a necessary culture of safety needed in all healthcare settings.
• Advanced practice providers can practice to the full scope of their training without antiquated supervision practice models; this will increase access to care for our communities throughout the public and private healthcare system.
• Development of “orphan drugs” for the millions of Americans who live with rare diseases should be supported and incentivized while keeping the cost of these medications affordable for rare disease patients. 
• Patients have a right to know if they are unable to receive comprehensive health care for their concern because either their health practitioner or facility is subject to faith-based restrictions.  
• Housing is health care. Washington residents struggling to survive unsheltered or living in unstable or unsafe housing also struggle to access comprehensive health care and adequate treatment for mental health or substance use disorder and recovery.  We support continued expansion of Housing First model housing, permanent supportive housing, and expansion of supportive housing funded by Medicaid at the state and federal levels.
• Healthcare Insurance companies will stop predatory and unaffordably high deductible use. 
• Adequate funding for eldercare in rural towns/areas
• Consumers have the right to obtain, at a reasonable price, the tools, parts, and schematics necessary to repair home health care products so that they can continue to be used rather than sent to landfills.