FIGHTING FOR HEALTH CARE

PRESSING FOR ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE CARE & PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Affordable health care is important to every American, and nearly every day North Bay residents tell me they are worried about the future of our system. Hospitals are closing, doctors are leaving their practices, employers are dropping their plans or raising premiums, and seniors still don’t have affordable prescription drugs.  With 45 million uninsured people in the U.S., it’s quite clear that we need to make some changes.  Affordable health care is a right, not a privilege.

As we engage in the debate over a comprehensive solution to our health care problems, I remain committed to fighting for long-term, permanent solutions.  This Congress, I have again joined Representative John Conyers (D-MI) in cosponsoring H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, which calls for a single payer national health insurance system.  This bill would control skyrocketing health costs and restore choice of physician and the doctor-patient relationship.

As you may know, a reduction in Medicare payments would have a devastating effect on physicians, other healthcare providers, and patients across the country.  That’s why I joined with my colleagues to pass H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act. The bill eliminates the pending 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians for the remainder of 2008 and provides a 1.1 percent update in Medicare physician payments for 2009. The President vetoed H.R. 6331, but the House and Senate successfully overrode the veto to prevent the cut in Medicare payments.

Sonoma County physicians are also hurt by the Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI), which inappropriately groups counties into payment localities that don’t reflect the real cost of providing care.  For example, Sonoma County is still listed as rural and therefore doctors in Sonoma County receive lower reimbursements than Marin County for the same services. I’m very concerned that the low reimbursement rates are turning doctors away from working with Medicare patients or even in medicine itself. That’s why I’m proud to be an original cosponsor of Representative Sam Farr’s (D-CA) bill to address this discrepancy, H.R. 2484, and I’m proud to have voted for H.R. 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007, which also legislated an update to the payment system.

While we still need to cover more of the uninsured, the House made an important step when we passed the most recent State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill.  H.R. 976, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, which passed the House in September 2007, would have taken an important next step towards covering our uninsured by expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children, bringing the total number of children covered under SCHIP to 10 million. In California, that would have provided 607,000 additional children with health insurance.  By vetoing this bill, the Bush Administration turned its back on these children. In December, Congress passed and President Bush approved S. 2499, the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act. S. 2499 provides a temporary extension of SCHIP through March 31, 2009, and would provide states like California with additional funding to ensure that all children currently on SCHIP continue to receive coverage.  While I’m pleased we were able to reauthorize SCHIP, I am disappointed that President Bush blocked Congress’ efforts to provide health insurance to additional children and will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that all children have access to the health insurance they need.

Additionally, I continue to work on the issue of prescription drug prices, which are out of control.  That’s why I was an original cosponsor of H.R. 4, the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007, which was one of the first bills the House passed this year.  This bill allows the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices to keep costs down for our seniors.  I will also continue to support legislation like H.R. 380, the Pharmaceutical Market Access Act which would allow the reimportation of prescription drugs.  It’s time that we stop letting the pharmaceutical companies’ profits skyrocket at the cost of affordable health care.

WOMEN’S HEALTH
Breast Cancer
Marin County’s breast cancer rates are not only alarming; they are unacceptable.  That’s why I am working with the local community and federal government to determine the best approach and means of intervention to investigate Marin’s high breast cancer rates.  Dr. Larry Meredith, the Director of Marin County’s Department of Public Health and I have met with the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, where he outlined a three-step research plan to look into the cause of Marin's high breast cancer rates.  I am very encouraged by the efforts that NCI has taken thus far and will continue to work with NCI until this health disparity can be sufficiently explained.

Knowledge is the key to understanding exactly what is going on in Marin.  That’s why I continue to work hard to secure federal funds to bolster local research efforts.  To date, I, along with Senator Boxer, have brought over $1.65 million to assist Marin County’s ongoing breast cancer research.  And, the National Institute of Health (NIH) established a Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center in the Bay Area.  This center holds enormous potential for helping us understand breast cancer both in our community and in women around the world.

Additionally, I have reintroduced the Annie Fox Act, H.R. 715, to further the study of breast cancer in younger victims.  This legislation, named in honor of a woman from our community who died of breast cancer at the age of 35, authorizes breast cancer research and outreach programs at the National Institute of Environmental Health and Science that will focus on younger women.  This research will explore the causes of breast cancer in younger women, investigate the effects that cancer treatment has on long term health, and determine better diagnostic tools and screening devices for finding breast cancer in younger women.

Reproductive Health
To promote healthy childbirth, women must have direct access to a full range of reproductive choices, including contraception, comprehensive sexuality education, and abortion.  That’s why I am an original co-sponsor of H.R.1653, the Responsible Education About Life Act.  This bill will ensure that sexuality education programs in schools include medically accurate information about both abstinence and contraception by establishing the first-ever federal sex education program.  In addition, I support several measures that would have provided prenatal care to low-income pregnant women.

I am disappointed by President Bush’s continued restrictions on U.S. assistance to international family planning programs, known as the “global gag rule.”  We should be repealing this harmful restriction, not expanding it.  That’s why I’m a cosponsor of H.R. 619, the Global Democracy Promotion Act, which would eliminate the global gag rule and lift the ban on foreign organizations that provide certain legal health services with their own funds from gaining access to U.S. - supported family planning programs.  Additionally, I voted for an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2008 modifying the global gag rule to end the restriction on providing contraceptives to family planning groups in developing countries.  This amendment was included in the final version of this important spending bill when it passed the House Furthermore, I’m a cosponsor of H.R. 2367, which would amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to increase access to contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

(updated Sept. 2008)