Issues
Health Care Snapshot
This is a quick overview of Senator
Feingold’s work to improve key aspects of the American
health-care system.
Moving Toward Universal
Health Care
- Feingold introduced
S. 3776, the State-Based Health Care Reform Act, to
break the logjam that is preventing Congress from addressing
our broken health care system. Feingold's legislation creates
a state-based, American-style approach to health care reform,
by authorizing a pilot program to help select states, with
federal support, cover all their residents.
Helping to Insure
Small Business Employees
- In 2005, Senator Feingold introduced
a bill with Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), the Promoting
Health Care Purchasing Cooperatives Act, to help small
businesses reduce health care premiums and improve the quality
of employees’ health care, without undermining state
regulation of health plans.
Increasing Access
to Affordable Prescription Drugs
- In 2005, Senator Feingold introduced
a
bill to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for those on
Medicare.
- He is also a strong supporter of the
Pharmaceutical
Market Access and Drug Safety Act, which would allow
the importation of safe and affordable prescriptions drugs
into the United States.
Funding Medical Research
- Senator Feingold consistently supports
increasing funding for the National Institutes of Health,
which provides important research that leads to treatments
and cures for debilitating conditions.
- He is also an advocate for stem cell
research. Senator Feingold recently voted in favor of the
Stem
Cell Research Enhancement Act, of which he is a cosponsor.
Improving Home Health
and Long Term Care
- In 2003, Senator Feingold successfully
blocked cuts in home health care funding, and provided regulatory
relief for home health providers, by working with a bipartisan
group of senators during the Medicare Modernization Act
debate.
- In the 108th and 109th Congresses, Senator
Feingold introduced the Medicare
Rural Home Health Payment Fairness Act with Senator
Collins, which proposed to provide more resources for home
health services in rural areas.
- Senator Feingold was a Democratic
team leader on long-term care during the health care reform
debate of 1994. Subsequently, he introduced long-term care
reform legislation several times to provide those needing
long-term care with flexible, consumer-oriented and consumer-directed
services, delivered in home and community settings, based
on the needs and preferences of individual consumers.
Increasing Access
to Automated External Defibrillators
- Senator Feingold introduced, and helped
pass into law, the Rural
Access to Emergency Devices program in 2000. The program
this law created has funded nearly $45 million in grants
to help save lives in rural areas by providing automated
external defibrillators (AEDs).
- He also authored the ADAM
Act, which the President signed into law in 2002. This
law establishes a clearinghouse to provide training and
resources for schools to gain access to AEDs.
Improving Dental Health
- Senator Feingold’s Dental Health
Improvement Act, which was enacted in 2002, provided $2
million in grants in fiscal year 2006 help improve access
to dental health care in underserved areas.
Medicare
| Medicare
Prescription Drug Program | Affordable
Prescription Drugs | Dental
Care | Home
Health Care | Biomedical
Research | Defibrillators
| Health
Care Snapshot
Related: Seniors
| The
Older Americans Act | Long-Term
Care Reform
Health
Care Main
|
