Improving Access to Health Care
Health care issues are a priority for me precisely because they affect everyone. I believe access to health providers is a right, and I will support all initiatives that enable my constituents to receive affordable, high quality medical care when they need it.
 My wife is a family doctor, and I know it is imperative that children receive proper health care when they are young. In addition, investing in our children's healthy futures makes the most economic sense for Americans. We cannot afford to deny health care to our youth since that will only increase our health care costs in the long run. This is why I strongly supported expanding and increasing funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program so that all eligible children can enroll in this highly successful, cost-effective initiative.
In the Valley, our region has special challenges because of our rural nature. Therefore, I strongly believe we must support health care providers to ensure individuals in medically underserved communities have equal access to health care. We need to draw qualified individuals to smaller communities to prevent health provider shortages. We also need to make certain our community health centers have all the resources they need to provide for those who depend on them.
 For this reason I support loan reimbursement for rural health care providers and continued funding for community health centers. In addition, I support adequate physician reimbursement rates to help attract and support rural community health providers. In previous sessions I have voted for these initiatives and will continue to do so throughout my tenure in Congress.
Priorities
• Providing access to health care for all individuals in the 18 th district of CA.
• Supporting health care providers by reversing scheduled reductions to their Medicare reimbursement rates.
• Protecting key Medicaid and Medicare programs from budget cuts to maintain their critical health care services for our most vulnerable populations.
• Expanding the SCHIP program, so that all children, regardless of income, receive the health care they need.
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Accomplishments
I supported H.R. 976, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, to increase funding for SCHIP.
See the bill as passed by Congress.
• I voted to protect physicians from reimbursement rates by supporting S. 2499, the SCHIP Extension Act, which also included provisions to stay any scheduled reductions in reimbursement rates to physicians.
See the bill as passed by the House.
• I helped facilitate the creation of the UC Merced School of Medicine to expand higher education opportunities in the San Joaquin Valley as well as address the critical projected physician shortage and combat serious health-related illnesses that plague the Valley.
Read the press release
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