(CNN) Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to drive down the maternal mortality rate among African-American women -- and she has a plan to get it done.

Speaking in Houston on Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat suggested that medical providers should be rewarded with "bonus" funds for reducing those numbers, which are three or four times higher than for white women.

"And if they don't," the presidential candidate said, dropping the carrot to wield a stick, "then they're going to have money taken away from them. I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use money to make it happen, because we gotta have change and we gotta have change now."

Warren's plan, which she discussed for the first time at the She the People conference in Texas, was greeted with sustained applause in a room largely filled by women of color -- a constituency that will likely be key in deciding the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The audience quickly warmed to the senator, then sent her off with a standing ovation as she rolled through her growing suite of detailed policy proposals. Perhaps more than any other candidate in the field, Warren has offered comprehensive plans to match her campaign rhetoric, a dedicated strategy her aides and allies believe will ultimately translate into success in the polls.

Warren also spelled out the stakes in a series of tweets, crediting activists for pushing the issue into the mainstream of national politics, then offering her plan: "Hit health care providers in their wallets," she tweeted. "Make it unacceptable for providers to tolerate our high rates of moms dying—especially black moms."

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