Castor has been interested in health care since her first elected position on the Hillsborough County Commission, where she defended the need to fund the county's indigent health care plan. In 2008, Castor successfully championed legislation to allow low-income families with overdue medical bills to still be eligible for student loans. Castor has served on the House Energy & Commerce Committee since 111th Congress. During her membership in the Health Subcommittee, the subcommittee worked toward progressive reform for Florida families, businesses, and university medical and nursing colleges . Since the Affordable Care Act passed, Castor has worked to educate Floridians about new patient protections and rights, and about enrollment in the marketplace exchange. She was critical of Governor Rick Scott and the Republican-led Florida legislature for not accepting more than $50 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid to provide health care access to more than one million Floridians. With the assistance of the National Association of Children's Hospitals, she and Representative Dave Reichert founded the bipartisan Children's Health Care Caucus, dedicated to improving quality of health care and health care access for children .
