I came to Congress knowing that affordable health care is a priority for constituents across the First District of Maine, so I’ve been working hard since day one:

Passed Legislation

• SCHIP Reauthorization signed into law in February – Protected coverage for 7 million children in the program and included an additional 4 million children who would otherwise be uninsured.
• The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) – Made a $19 billion investment in Health Information Technology (HIT), roughly $87 billion in additional federal matching funds to help states maintain their Medicaid programs, 60% subsidy for COBRA premiums for unemployed workers for up to 9 months, $1 billion for a new Prevention and Wellness Fund, and $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research to help patients and doctors determine the effectiveness of different treatments and improve quality of care.

Old Port Pharmacy in Portland.

Cosponsored Legislation

Health Insurance Reform

• H.R. 676, the United States National Health Care Act or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act (Rep. Conyers, D-MI) to provide single-payer health insurance.
• H.R. 1558, the Pre-Existing Condition Patient Protection Act (Rep. Courtney, D-CT) to prevent insurance companies from discriminating against patients based on pre-existing conditions.

Prescription Drug Reform

• H.R. 1725, the Voluntary State Discount Prescription Drug Plan Act (Rep. Van Hollen, D-MD) Since my days in the State Legislature I have fought to lower the price of prescription medication.  I strongly believe that prescription drug reform is one of the most important tasks facing us in reforming health care system.  It’s time to end the stranglehold that drug and insurance companies have on our health and on our pocketbooks.  That’s why I joined my colleague, Congressman Van Hollen, to introduce H.R. 1725, the Voluntary State Discount Prescription Drug Plan Act, which would allow states to extend Medicaid drug rebates to additional persons with low income, resulting in more affordable medications for those who need them most.
• H.R. 684, the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (Rep. Berry, D-AR) One of the biggest problems with prescription drugs is that powerful pharmaceutical companies are charging us outrageous prices because our government is prohibited from negotiating with them in order to secure a better deal.  That’s why I am a proud original cosponsor of H.R. 684, the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act of 2009. This bill would establish one or more Medicare-operated drug plans that would compete with private prescription drug plans.  In addition, the bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate the purchase price of covered Part D drugs with pharmaceutical manufacturers, which would give consumers access to cheaper, more affordable medicines.

Primary and Dental Care

• H.R. 2350, the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act (Rep. Schwartz, D-PA) to increase the number of primary care physicians.
• H.R. 2220, the Essential Oral Health Act (Rep. Ross, D-AR) to improve Medicaid reimbursement for dental and oral health services.

Veterans' Health Care

• H.R.816, Military Retiree Health Care Protection Act (Rep. Edwards, D-TX) to prohibit increased premiums, deductibles, or co-payments for retired military personnel. We must keep our promises to our veterans by protecting the health care benefits they so richly deserve.
• H.R. 1016, the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act (Rep. Filner, D-CA), which authorizes Congress to approve investments in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care one year in advance to provide time for the VA to plan how to deliver the best care to the growing number of veterans with increasingly complex medical conditions.
• H.R. 952, the COMBAT PTSD Act (Rep. Hall, D-NY) to change the definition of “combat” to active duty service in a combat theater of operations, once and for all acknowledging that service in a combat theater is enough of a traumatic event to cause post traumatic stress disorder. This bill would remove the burden of proof on veterans to produce documentation verifying traumatic events occurred in theater; many of these records were lost, inaccurately recorded or not recorded through no fault of the veteran. This change would expedite the claims process.
• H.R. 2254, Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009 (Rep. Filner, D-CA) to provide presumptive service connection for exposure to Agent Orange for any veteran who served in Vietnam on land, sea or air, removing the VA’s recent ‘boots in country” requirement that has denied thousands of Vietnam Navy (‘Blue Water Navy’) the health care and compensation they deserve.