Chuck wants to do everything possible to ensure access to reasonably priced, high-quality health care for all Americans. He's been working for a real patients' bill of rights since his first months in the Senate and he'll keep on working until we get one. When crises emerge in New York State, Chuck is our advocate for aid in the US Senate, bringing increased hospital funding to New York City, the Finger Lakes area, the Capital Region, Long Island, Central New York, the Southern Tier, Western New York, Westchester, and the Hudson Valley.

When new FDA regulations threatened New York's blood supply, Chuck was ready, calling on the federal government to declare a state of emergency, donated blood, and worked with the New York Blood Center and the New York Yankees to promote blood donation.

Other health initiatives include:

• Breast cancer: Mammograms save lives, but, too often, they are inaccessible for many women. Chuck co-sponsored legislation that would reduce waiting times by increasing the federal reimbursement rates, buying more equipment and attracting more doctors to the field.
  
  
• Fighting Bioterrorism: Chuck successfully convinced HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to use the availability of the generic version of Cipro to lower the price the federal government pays for the antibiotic, saving the taxpayers over $100 million.
  
  
• Organ donation: Thanks to advances in medical technology, doctors can now use organ transplants to save countless numbers of otherwise healthy people. Unfortunately, New York faces a dire shortage of organs available for transplant. The Schumer plan to create a national organ registry could save thousands of lives.
  
  
• Prescription drugs: Now the main form of treatment for many diseases, prescription drugs come at a price that many cannot afford. Chuck joined with John McCain on an initiative to save consumers $71 billion by increasing access to generic alternatives. On average, by its third year on the market, generic drugs are 60% cheaper than brand name alternatives.
  
  
• Medical Errors: Chuck's plan to provide funding for cash-strapped hospitals to purchase state-of-the-art computer systems would help reduce preventable medical errors by up to 70%.
  
  
• HMO Coverage: Chuck has written bipartisan legislation to stabilize the Medicare +Choice
  program and protect the health care choices of Medicare recipients. As a result of flaws in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, many HMOs have pulled away from offering coverage to Medicare recipients in counties across the nation forcing roughly 1.6 million seniors to change plans or return to the significantly more expensive Medicare fee-for-service plan.

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