United States of America — Democratic PartyCandidate for President

Mike will set national infrastructure goals and require states to prioritize maintenance and repair. Mike’s plan will create the first-ever national map that traces all road, rail, transit, air, and freight routes, to identify where gaps and obstacles exist, and will leverage data from both the public and private sectors to make smarter decisions on transportation investments and safety.

Mike’s plan will fix 240,000 miles of roads and 16,000 bridges in four years, and dedicate $850 billion over 10 years to building and upgrading roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure — helping to create millions of jobs. Mike will also establish a $1 billion annual “pothole” fund to make emergency repairs and will triple annual federal investment in public transit, including $12 billion per year for a new operating assistance program to improve service and attract new users.

Mike’s plan includes the first-ever national effort to reduce road fatalities. By implementing smarter road design standards, better rules, and stronger enforcement, his plan can save 20,000 lives by 2025 t. Mike’s plan will also bring safe, clean drinking water to communities across America, starting with cities in crisis such as Flint and Newark.

Mike’s plan will invest in clean energy and a modern electrical grid to support it. He’ll update our transportation system to reduce carbon pollution and save families money, by investing in transit and making pollution-free electric vehicles affordable and convenient to charge. And he’ll upgrade America’s building stock to reduce pollution and lower energy costs for families and business owners.

As mayor of New York City, Mike expanded health care for working families and improved care for seniors. The number of New Yorkers without health insurance fell nearly 40% from 2001 to 2013, and the number of uninsured children fell by 72%. As president, Mike will lower drug costs for Americans of all ages by reforming Medicare, capping out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries and working with Congress to authorize Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies.

Mike will create a Medicare-like public option – a health plan that will be administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums. He will improve consumer choice and increase competition in the private insurance market, pushing down premiums for all. His plan will allow people of modest means who buy the public option to be eligible for the same subsidies that would apply on the health insurance exchanges.

Mike’s plan will reverse the current administration’s attempts at sabotage. It will expand enrollment efforts, restrict the sale of health plans that don’t meet ACA standards, and defend the law against politically motivated lawsuits. It will expand subsidies to cap premiums at 8.5% of a household’s income. It will create a permanent reinsurance program that, by helping insurers with the largest claims, will reduce customer premiums roughly 10%. It will also expand Medicare to include an optional policy covering dental, hearing and vision care, and require all states to cover oral health services for adults in Medicaid.

Mike will cap out-of-network charges at 200% of Medicare rates to bring prices down.

Mike will work with Congress to authorize the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. His plan will cap drug prices at 120% of the average in other advanced nations – and this cap will apply to consumers with public or private insurance. Mike will ban drug company payments to the people who make decisions at pharmacies so that drug makers compete on the cost and value of their products – not on the amount of money they pay to get preferential treatment. Mike will also reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit to encourage greater competition and cap beneficiaries’ annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.

Not only will Mike prioritize helping Americans of all ages, he will make sure that those living in rural communities can access the health care they need. Mike will change rural hospital payment models so that they receive a fixed, capitated annual budget, to make them less dependent on the number of patients who walk through the door. Mike will double federal funding for Community Health Centers and increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, which offers loan repayment and scholarship opportunities for doctors who practice in high-need areas. Mike will also expand broadband access to rural areas and boost Medicare coverage of telemedicine services, to connect rural Americans with additional providers.

Mike’s plan will protect Dreamers and TPS holders and create an earned pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. Mike will reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), implementing sensible immigration enforcement priorities that promote public safety and national security. Mike will also end construction of the current administration's ineffective wall, invest in smart security measures and upgrade our ports of entry to protect the border and increase efficiency.

Mike’s plan will modernize our legal immigration system while protecting and investing in U.S. workers—and will protect all workers, including immigrants, from exploitation and labor violations. Mike will make employment-based immigration more responsive to economic conditions and reduce the backlogs that keep families apart. He will implement policies that attract job-creating innovators and entrepreneurs and create new place-based visas that allow localities to address unmet needs.

Mike will rescind the current administration's disgraceful travel ban, end family separations at the border, establish rigorous safeguards for children, and promote alternatives to detention for individuals and families who pose no threat to public safety. Mike will set the annual refugee resettlement target at 125,000 and also restore fairness and timeliness to the asylum process. And he will honor and protect immigrant service members, veterans and their families.

Mike will encourage eligible immigrants to become U.S. citizens by clearing the naturalization backlog, reducing the naturalization fee and investing in community-based efforts to promote citizenship, including English and civics courses and immigration legal services. Mike will create a federal Office of New Americans to support the integration of newcomers, offer CDBG funding for projects that bring promote cohesion and community-building in places experiencing demographic change, and launch a national competition to support job-creating entrepreneurs.