We deserve guaranteed healthcare. Right now, health insurance companies force us to fork over thousands for barely anything in return. They reject our claims, slap us with six thousand dollar deductibles, and then expect us to beg them to cover our child’s medicine even though we paid them to cover us in the first place. The health insurance industry is functionally a scam.

The bare minimum Texans deserve is to have their health taken care of. Anything that prevents this is unacceptable, which is why we are fighting to create a healthcare system that every Texan is entitled to. One that, for most in this district, will be thousands of dollars cheaper.

This looks like a public option, an alternative to private or employer insurance. You could keep your current plan, but unlike them it will guarantee coverage of all medications and treatments deemed necessary by your doctor. Or, in the case of things which are necessary for treatment but “contested,” they’ll be partially covered and at a lower price.

Rather than thousands in deductibles a year plus several thousand more in co-pays and surprise out of pocket expenses many pay, you would only be paying two to four thousand dollars a year based on income per adult, plus out of pocket costs equivalent to, at most, your morning coffee run for prescriptions and days at the hospital.

As well, anyone 26 or under would be considered a dependent of their parents or guardians, with disabled adults having indefinite coverage as dependents. No massive increases just because your children need healthcare.

This public option is funded the same way Social Security and unemployment already are: a small, automatic contribution taken from your paycheck and matched by your employer. There would be no surprise $800 bills waiting in the mail.

We deserve housing we can afford. Let’s be honest, the Texas housing market and living costs are awful. High property taxes, absurd housing insurance rates, skyrocketing rent, and insane mortgage rates create a situation where many Texans are one disaster away from losing it all despite doing everything right. And as for our children, most are flat out unable to afford a home because of how expensive they are.

This is completely unacceptable. Housing is not an optional luxury, it is a necessity to live with dignity and raise a family if we so choose. 

For homeowners, we are fighting for regulations such as homestead exemptions and targeted relief to prevent you from being taxed out of your home. We’ll also force insurers to justify price hikes with actual data, and limit how far and fast they can jack up costs.

For tenants, we are fighting to end unjust rent increases. Landlords with five or more properties will only be able to increase rent by 3% from the previous year. We will also fight for tenant protections, requiring legitimate justification for evictions rather than the current criteria: “because I said so.” 

As for mortgages, corporations buying up homes are what pushed home prices into the stratosphere. Through regulations, caps, and requirements for cities and residents to have first pick on any property for sale, we can make it extremely painful for corporations like BlackRock to buy what is rightfully ours.

Finally, we will invest in real public and social housing to build high-quality homes that people can afford. Mixed-income housing that’s built for struggling families, seniors, and veterans as a guarantee that they, too, can live without fear.

We deserve the greatest education system possible. Our school district budgets were already being squeezed, yet instead of fixing things they peddled private school vouchers with money that should have been used for our classrooms.

If you can afford private school, then great. But the responsibility Austin has is to public schools, and they chose a scam that benefits no one but billionaires. If that wasn't enough, teachers aren't being paid enough to live off of despite their critical role in our children's development. 

The dysfunction doesn't stop at K-12. College tuition is so cripplingly expensive that many Texans have had to watch as their children either go into insane debt to earn their degree, or forgo it entirely because they literally cannot afford it. The state of Texas’s education is unacceptable.

We are fighting so that every school, no matter what their zip code is, will be fully funded. That means they receive enough to pay teachers a living wage, purchase supplies, fund learning resources like computers, and pay for expansions or remodeling as needed. We are also fighting for setting in-state tuition costs for community college and public 4-year colleges at zero.