This week at the Texas Capitol, we learned something shocking.

During a hearing of the House Committee on the Delivery of Government Efficiency (DOGE), lawmakers uncovered that a Medicaid contractor—paid with taxpayer dollars to serve vulnerable Texans—hired a private investigator to dig into elected officials. That’s right: instead of focusing on care, cost control, or fraud prevention, a company entrusted with our most sensitive health services spent public funds on a “reputational risk assessment” of the people tasked with holding them accountable.

At the learning we also learned that lawmakers weren’t the only targets—some patients had also been investigated. Think about that. You’re a struggling mom on Medicaid trying to get care for your child, and your insurer hires someone to follow you. Not to help you. Not to stop fraud. But to protect their bottom line.

This isn’t healthcare. It’s surveillance disguised as service. And it’s the logical endpoint of a system where profit is king and people are numbers on a spreadsheet.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only example of misplaced priorities in healthcare this week.

Just days earlier, the American Heart Association walked back their opposition to a bill that would prohibit SNAP (food stamp) recipients from using taxpayer funds to buy soda and candy. Their Texas lobbyist testified against the bill in a public hearing, joining corporate behemoths like Walmart in trying to kill the measure. The backlash was immediate—and viral. Millions watched the clip, including Joe Rogan, who called it out on his podcast. Only then did the AHA reverse course, claiming it was all a “miscommunication.”

Let’s be clear: it wasn’t. They registered in opposition, delivered testimony, and submitted formal written comments—all on the record. The only thing that changed was public pressure.

What these two stories show is that corporate capture of public health is real—and it's hurting Texans. Our healthcare system is dominated by massive institutions: Big Government contracting with Big Insurance, Big Pharma, and now Big Tech. These organizations hide behind mission statements and PR campaigns while quietly undermining transparency, accountability, and common sense reform.

We’ve lost something along the way. Health used to be personal. You knew your doctor. You trusted your pharmacist. You bought your food from people in your community. Now it’s all opaque, digitized, and centralized. You don’t know who’s making decisions about your care. You don’t know if your prescription is being priced fairly. And you certainly don’t know if your insurer is tracking you—or targeting your legislator.

At Make Texans Healthy Again, we believe it's time to flip the script.

We’re advocating for real reforms that restore trust and put people back at the center of healthcare. One bill we support would prevent insurance companies from using AI algorithms as the sole basis for denying or delaying medical treatment—because robots shouldn’t decide whether your child gets care. Another set of bills would reform the powerful and secretive pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), who manipulate drug prices and limit access to medications, all while being owned by the very insurers they’re supposedly negotiating against.

Texans deserve a system that values health over profit. We’re not anti-business. We’re anti-broken system. When public dollars are being used to stalk legislators and deny care to sick people, we have a crisis on our hands—and it’s time to fight back.

We need to rebuild health from the ground up—local, transparent, human. Because the most powerful healthcare system in the world should never make people feel powerless.

Travis McCormick is the founder of Make Texans Healthy Again, a nonpartisan advocacy group advancing state-level policies that prioritize prevention, improve nutrition and fitness, and promote transparency, access, and freedom in healthcare and insurance. Learn more at MakeTexansHealthyAgain.com.