By Matthew Hutchison / WHMI News

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and Michigan congressional candidate Bridget Brink says her breast cancer diagnosis shaped her health care platform — including support for a public option, expanded cancer screening access and a federal ban on pharmaceutical advertising on television.
On prescription drug costs, Brink said pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to extend monopolies through patents for too long and said she would support a federal ban on pharmaceutical advertising on television.

“I don’t like those ads on TV,” said the Democrat from Lansing who is seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Republican Congressman Tom Barrett. “I don’t want them to be advertised to by pharmaceutical companies, and I think it’s a mistake. That money is being spent basically for marketing.”

Brink – who made the comments during a wide-ranging interview on WHMI’s “Meet the People” program – said doctors should recommend medications based on medical need, not advertising, adding that Congress should look at lowering the cost of widely used drugs and devices, including insulin and EpiPens.

“I have a kid who has asthma, and I can tell you, as a parent it would drive me crazy how much money I had to spend on EpiPens,” Brink said.

Brink, who was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer last summer, says her own health journey has shaped how she thinks about health care access, medical debt, prescription drug costs and insurance coverage as she campaigns for Congress in Michigan’s 7th District.

“It was a complete shock,” said Brink of her diagnosis. “I had spent a lifetime in mostly foreign war zones and had a class one medical clearance, which means you have to have a very high standard of health … so it was a surprise.”
Brink, who had surgery in the fall and is now cancer free, said the cost of that surgery was $100,000, even before follow-up care and other expenses.

“In my case, luckily it was covered,” Brink said. “But it made me realize that anybody at any time can face this for themselves or a family member, where you end up with a life-threatening illness or some other disaster, which results in this incredibly high medical bill that you may or may not be able to pay.”

She added: “It can bankrupt you, and I can tell you that it brought it home to me in such a personal way.”

The subject of spiraling health care costs comes up regularly, Brink says, as she campaigns across the district.
“It’s not just the fact that there’s fear that you could face a catastrophe and not be able to pay for it,” she said. “There’s medical debt that people have because of other issues that they may have, but there’s also a complete frustration with insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.”

Brink said Barrett and other Republicans should have extended Affordable Care Act subsidies enacted during COVID and criticized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
“That (bill) is going to mean 25,000 people don’t have coverage,” Brink said. “That means that rural hospitals, which also depend on Medicaid, and to support these folks are not able to survive. The repercussions of this is that health care is going to cost more for everybody.”

Brink said she would support extending Affordable Care Act credits, reversing Medicaid cuts, expanding Medicaid and creating a public option.

“I would support a public option, an affordable public option, so people who may fall between the cracks have an affordable option on the table that they can buy for health care,” Brink said.

She also said insurance companies should not be able to override doctors when care is medically necessary.
“It should be if your doctor says you need something, the insurance company should be obliged to provide for that and support that,” Brink said.

On Social Security and Medicare, Brink said lawmakers need to act before the programs face a funding crisis.
“We absolutely need to make changes, because by 2032 if not earlier, there is going to be a crisis where Social Security and Medicare won’t be able to pay full benefits,” Brink said.

Brink said one fix would be lifting the cap on Social Security taxes.

“There’s, I think, one relatively easy fix, and that is to lift the cap on Social Security taxes, so that instead of being capped at, I think, $177,000 a year, you just lift that cap,” Brink said. “I think, as I understand, that would largely solve the problem for being able to fully fund Social Security and Medicare.”

Beyond health care, Brink said her campaign is also focused on lowering costs and defending democracy.

“I hear people, they want someone who’s going to stand up to Trump,” Brink said. “What I bring to this race that no other candidate does is someone who has a proven record of standing up to Trump and doing what’s right.”

Asked about cost of living, Brink said Congress should stop what she called “reckless tariffs,” particularly tariffs affecting trade with Canada, and use federal dollars to support Michigan manufacturing.

On data centers, Brink said local communities should have the final say over whether projects are built in their communities and should receive full information about potential impacts.

“Local communities have the right to know what’s being put in their own backyards, and they have the right to have full information and full transparency, and I would say anything that would come in needs to mitigate environmental impacts and negative impacts,” Brink said, adding that data center developers should be required to avoid shifting costs to ratepayers, explain environmental effects and work with local officials.

Brink also said she supports federal disclosure rules for AI-generated campaign ads and broader guardrails around artificial intelligence.

“The future is coming,” Brink said. “That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t find ways where we can put guardrails around it to enable us to use it in a way that’s positive, but we should do that in an active way.”

Brink also raised concerns about PFAS contamination in Michigan, saying the issue worries her as a cancer survivor.

“I know that there are PFAS concentrations all over our district, including in our most populated areas,” Brink said. “We need to address these things in a way that supports an economy that’s going to thrive now, but also understands we’ve got to find ways that we also protect the environment and that we bring in technology in a smart way.”

Brink is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Barrett in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the most competitive House districts in the country. The district includes all of Ingham, Livingston, Clinton and Shiawassee counties, most of Eaton County and parts of Oakland and Genesee counties.

The full interview with Ambassador Brink airs at 6 a.m. Sunday morning on WHMI and is available on demand at the link below.