Health and Social Policy

 In the 111th Congress, Senator Lieberman continues to fight on behalf of Connecticut to address these vital concerns and for affordable health care for all, especially for America’s most vulnerable – the poor, elderly, children, and their families.

Senator Lieberman voted to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, to help ensure that no child living in America is without health insurance. This legislation extended health care to over 4 million children who were living without it. It passed Congress with bi-partisan support and was signed by President Obama on February 4, 2009.

Senator Lieberman also reintroduced the Healthy Americans Act (S. 391) a bipartisan health care reform bill that would establish a centrally financed system of private health insurance options for all Americans. The Congressional Budget Office projected that this bill would be budget –neutral while providing universal coverage. Furthermore, the Senator has cosponsored legislation that would make it more affordable for small businesses to provide their employees with health care, lower the cost of prescription drugs under Part D, and provide individuals with greater choice in their long-term care.

Health Policy: Health Care Reform | Medicare & Medicaid | Children's Health | Small Business | Expanding the Medical Workforce | Tobacco | Mental Health | Public Health | Community Health Centers

Social Policy: Immigration | Social Security | Veterans/Military Retirees | Women's Reproductive Rights

 

Health Care Reform

Senator Lieberman voted for passage of comprehensive health care reform on December 24th, 2009, when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed the Senate by a vote of 60 to 39. This landmark legislation was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010. Click here for more information on this bill.

The Senator has always been dedicated to achieving reform that makes health care more affordable, more accessible, and rewards quality of service rather than quantity of service. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, accomplishes these goals. Health insurance will now be available to 32 million more citizens; tax credits will be provided to lower and middle income individuals and families (and small businesses) to help make coverage more affordable; and the legislation contains strong delivery system reforms that will make crucial steps towards moving our health care system to a value-based system, rather than one where providers get paid for each service they give.

Additionally, the health insurance industry will now be held more accountable for the coverage they provide. Soon, insurers will no longer discriminate on the basis of health status, or rescind coverage when and if you become ill, or place caps on the amount of benefits one can receive annually or in a lifetime. The Senator has long supported greater regulation of the insurance industry and feels that health care reform has achieved that goal.

Senator Lieberman continues to have concerns about the state of our economic recovery and fought to ensure that health care reform did not worsen the country’s current fiscal crisis. It is for this reason that the Senator fought tirelessly to ensure that we did not create a new government-run health care option or expand access to Medicare. With Medicare approaching bankruptcy, the Senator remained committed to preserving this vital program for current and future beneficiaries. Health care reform has achieved this by extending Medicare for an additional ten years.

In the end, the Senator supported health care reform that reduces the deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years and by $1.2 trillion in the decade following. The Senator, along with several bi-partisan colleagues, supported amendments that were included in health care reform that would strengthen the cost containment measures such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board and delivery reforms that reward quality of care over quantity. Introduced with Senator Collins, Senator Lieberman’s amendment to create Physician Compare, a website where consumers could more easily locate and compare Medicare providers, was adopted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Senator Lieberman remains committed to making sure that health care reform is implemented fully. He understands that this bill is complex and difficult to figure out. Please click here for further information on how health care reform will affect you. Additionally, please visit http://healthreform.gov for future updates.

To learn more about health care reform and see frequently asked questions, click here.

 

Medicare & Medicaid

Senator Lieberman understands the importance of Medicare to Connecticut’s seniors and the importance of Medicaid to those who cannot otherwise afford health insurance. These programs serve our most vulnerable populations and Senator Lieberman is committed to ensuring that these programs are sustainable, provide high quality care, and allow for patient choice and autonomy.

Senator Lieberman has also taken a leadership role in improving the Medicare Part D program for seniors. He has been a long time advocate of reducing the gap in coverage in Part D, known as the doughnut hole, and allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers. The Medicare Prescription Drug Gap Reduction Act (S. 266) works to achieve these goals and the Senator is a proud supporter of this legislation. Additional information on Medicare Part is available on this frequently asked question section of the website https://questions.medicare.gov. Additionally, the Senator has signed on to legislation to permit more comprehensive rehabilitation benefits and home infusion therapy for Medicare beneficiaries (S. 46, S. 254).

Senator Lieberman also understands the challenges that long term care poses to America’s seniors and their families. Often times individuals are forced to spend down their assets in order to qualify for Medicaid services, the only public program that assists with comprehensive long term care needs. Even then, people often lack the choice on where to receive their care. The Senator is a proud cosponsor of the Community Choice Act (S. 683) a bill that amends Medicaid to require state Medicaid plan coverage of community based services. This legislation will allow individuals to receive in-home rather than institutional care and permits for greater choice by beneficiaries on where to receive their Medicaid benefits.

 

Children’s Health

Senator Lieberman continues to be involved in initiatives and proposals to promote and protect children, their health, and their families. On January 29, 2009, Senator Lieberman voted for passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009. This bill reauthorized the SCHIP program and was essential in ensuring that the 6.7 million low income children who currently had SCHIP coverage could keep it, and also allowed an additional 4.1 million eligible low-income children to enroll in the program. The Senator was proud to see this bill signed into law by President Obama on February 4, 2009.

 

Small Businesses

One challenge facing small businesses is their inability to offer health insurance benefits to their employees, something most small businesses would like to provide. That is why the Senator is once again a cosponsor of the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Act of 2009 (S. 979). The SHOP Act requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to administer a nationwide purchasing pool to give small businesses of up to 100 employees and the self employed a new option for obtaining health insurance. Those who participate may choose to enroll in plans operating in their individual state or in a nationwide plan. To provide a trusted starting point for learning about and enrolling in SHOP, associations, unions, and others could serve as “navigators” and would distribute information, facilitate enrollment, and serve as a communications channel between employees, health plans, and the Administrator. Targeted tax credits would be offered to the self employed and businesses with up to 50 employees to help facilitate enrollment.

 

Expanding the Medical Workforce

Senator Lieberman knows that as we make health care more accessible, we need to have the doctors and nurses to provide that care. That is why the Senator helped introduce the Nurses’ Higher Education and Loan Repayment Act of 2009 (S. 1022) on May 12, 2009. Not only does this bill recognize the importance of nurses in our health care workforce, it addresses the pay disparity between nurse educators and clinicians. It is important to ensure that we have enough educators so that we can continue to enroll quality students in nursing schools. The bill does this by providing loan repayment assistance for nurse educators who are full-time faculty members of an accredited school of nursing.

Senator Lieberman also helped introduce the Preventive Medicine and Public Health Training Act (S. 693) to address workforce shortage issues. Prevention and wellness initiatives are a pillar of health care reform and are essential to reducing health care costs over the long-term. However, there is still a shortage of medical providers who specialize in preventive medicine. This legislation authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants to provide training to graduate medical residents in preventive medicine specialties. These grants may be used towards residency programs or to provide financial assistance to resident physicians who plan to specialize in preventive medicine or public health.

 

Tobacco

Tobacco use in the United States kills more than 400,000 Americans each year and nearly 20% of American adults suffer from an addiction to cigarettes. Public and private health care expenditures attributable to smoking cost us $96 billion per year with taxpayers shouldering $68 billion of those costs due to Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs. Senator Lieberman remains committed to decreasing tobacco use among Americans, especially among children, where it is reported that 20% of high school students smoke and more than 3,500 children try smoking for the first time each day.

Senator Lieberman was proud to help reintroduce the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (S. 982). This landmark legislation, which passed the Senate on June 11, 2009 and was signed into law by President Obama on June 22, 2009 (P.L. 111-31), gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meaningful, effective oversight of tobacco research, manufacturing, and marketing practices. As a result of this law, tobacco companies will no longer be able to target youth and mislead the public. It is estimated that this legislation will have the effect of reducing childhood smoking by 11%, which would mean that two million children will never become addicted adult smokers and at least 700,000 children alive today will not experience a premature death due to tobacco use.

 

Mental Health

Late in the 110th Congress, Senator Lieberman helped pass the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2009, legislation that amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Public Health Services Act, and the Internal Revenue Code to require a group health plan that provides medical, surgical, and mental health benefits to ensure that the benefits applied to mental health be equal to those provided for other medical and surgical care.

Senator Lieberman recognizes the importance of mental health to overall health and feels strongly that individuals should not be discriminated against by their health plans should they suffer from mental health or substance abuse conditions. Mental health parity corrects a grave misunderstanding that mental health care need not be addressed with the same urgency as other health problems.

 

Public Health

As Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Senator has convened hearings to investigate federal, state, and local public health and medical responses to disasters. In the wake of the recent H1N1 virus or “Swine Flu,” the Senator immediately called a hearing with Secretary Janet Napolitano as well as leaders from the CDC to examine our preparedness and ability to respond to this outbreak. The Senator was glad to see the FY09 Supplemental Appropriations bill consider the need to better be able to respond to a possible influenza pandemic by including $1.85 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and purchase vaccines, antivirals, medical supplies, diagnostics, and other surveillance tools. The Senator voted for this legislation on June 18, 2009, and it was signed by President Obama on June 24, 2009 (P.L. 111-32).

Also in response to the H1N1 virus, the Senator cosponsored the Public Health Emergency Response Act (S. 957) to ensure that emergency health care services during a public health emergency are covered and payments are made to providers. This bill will not only assuage the fear that uninsured individuals have that causes them to delay medical attention during a public health emergency, but also ensures that health care providers remain fiscally solvent and are not overburdened by the cost of uncompensated care.

 

Community Health Centers

Senator Lieberman believes in strengthening our nation’s public health services, especially Community Health Centers, which play a critical role in our public health infrastructure. In addition to providing health care services to more than 18 million people annually, community health centers are essential to proving access to primary care and preventive care, one of the key elements of health care reform. Care provided at health centers is ranked among the most cost-effective with some indicating that they save the Medicaid program around 30% in annual spending for Medicaid beneficiaries.

In Connecticut, there are 201 health center sites serving over 220,000 patients annually. In 2006 Connecticut reported nearly $200 million in economic benefits generated for local communities by federally-supported health centers. Senator Lieberman applauds the assistance the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – also known as the economic stimulus bill - provided to community health centers in Connecticut and nationwide. In Connecticut alone, these centers have received over $15 million thus far this year. These funds will go towards construction, renovation and repair, new equipment, health information technology, and recruitment and retention of employees.

 

Immigration

Immigration Reform. Senator Lieberman, co-chair of the Senate Hispanic Task Force, supports comprehensive immigration reform. He wants to bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows by offering them a path to legal residency and citizenship. He supports additional immigration visas, so that spouses and children will no longer have to wait years to be reunited with their family members in the U.S. And he supports a guestworker program that will allow people to come to the U.S. legally to fill jobs and after a few years, apply for legal residency or return to their home country.

Senator Lieberman has co-sponsored legislation to achieve comprehensive immigration reform (the McCain-Kennedy legislation), to make it easier for young immigrants who graduate high school to attend college (the DREAM Act), and to make pregnant women and young children who are recent immigrants eligible for federal heath benefits (the Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act). He has also pressured the Department of Homeland Security to improve conditions of detention for asylum seekers. In all of these cases, he is fighting for the rights of people who are, too often, neglected by our government and exploited by employers.

 

Social Security

Social Security. Senator Lieberman is committed to continuing and strengthening Social Security, the most successful social insurance program in American history.

Social Security has been a spectacular success, saving millions of American seniors, survivors and disabled from poverty. But the combination of baby boom retirements, an aging population, and our current budget crisis will over time put the program in a precarious position.

Senator Lieberman believes that, while Social Security may not be in immediate jeopardy, it is better to act sooner rather than later so that future generations will be able to count on Social Security as past generations of Americans have. Every year we wait to act means hundreds of billions of dollars more we and our children and grandchildren must pay later. Reforms must reinforce the program and the values it embodies, not undermine them. We should look at options that address Social Security's long-term solvency and preserve the guaranteed nature of the retirement benefit.

Senator Lieberman is opposed to proposals to privatize Social Security through the establishment of private savings accounts carved-out of the taxes that support the current system. Based on what he knows of the plan, the private savings accounts would not preserve the essential guaranteed Social Security benefit and would add trillions of dollars of debt. Senator Lieberman cannot support any plan that does nothing to improve the long-term solvency of Social Security, or would hasten the program’s demise. To that effect, he joined 41 Senate Democrats in a letter to Former President Bush opposing his plan for private accounts.

Senator Lieberman believes that all who want to strengthen Social Security - as he does - have an obligation to engage in the important reform debate with an open mind and to offer constructive reform proposals. For example, Senator Lieberman in the past has been a champion of Kidsave, a plan which would complement Social Security benefits by providing children with seed money at an early age and help them develop a nest egg for retirement. Again, these reforms must reinforce and preserve the program and the values it embodies, not undermine them.

 

Veterans/Military Retirees

Identity Theft. Senator Lieberman is deeply troubled that personal identity information of more than 26 million veterans has been put at risk because of a security lapse at a federal agency. This is another reminder that the federal government is not doing enough to protect the security of its computers and the vast amounts of sensitive data those systems contain. He is particularly outraged that this latest security breach affects our veterans, who sacrifice much for their country, and who deserve every protection of their personal information.

In addition to addressing this issue at a joint hearing of the Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee and Veterans Affairs Committee, and sponsoring legislation to require the VA to provide real-time credit monitoring to each veteran whose identity data was stolen, Senator Lieberman will monitor the progress of ongoing inquiries by the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General and by the FBI, and intends to explore more generally how personal data throughout the government can be better secured against this kind of loss.

Information for Veterans who feel their identity may have been compromised. More>

Veterans/Military Retirees Benefits. Senator Lieberman has been a long time advocate for veterans and military retirees in Connecticut and across the nation. In June of 2007, Senator Lieberman co-sponsored the Bayh-Clinton Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Access to Options Act. TBI has been identified as the "signature injury" afflicting Iraq and Afghanistan service members. This bill would allow service members with severe TBI to remain on active duty and access cognitive therapy in private rehabilitation facilities; ensure that every TBI patient has a trained medical advocate; and Commission an annual GAO report that details VA progress in treating TBI.

In April of 2007, Senator Lieberman introduced The Mental Health Care for our Wounded Warriors Act to research and coordinate all aspects of military mental health policies and services, and to reduce the shortage of mental health professionals in order to provide the best mental health care to members of our armed forces. The Centers of Excellence within the DoD would research and guide the development and implementation of comprehensive strategies to prevent, identify, and treat combat-related mental health conditions, emphasizing PTSD and traumatic brain injuries; develop, identify, and disseminate best practices for treatment of combat-related mental health conditions and brain injuries; and develop measures to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health illnesses. The legislation would require the DoD to report back to Congress within 45 days on the need for Congressional intervention to provide financial incentives to reduce mental health workforce shortages.

In February of 2007, Senator Lieberman co-sponsored Senator Reid's Retired Pay Restoration Act, legislation that would permit certain retired members of the uniformed services who have a service-connected disability to receive both disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for their disability and either retired pay or Combat-Related Special Compensation.

On June 30th, 2005, Senator Lieberman helped pass $1.5 billion dollars in supplemental funds to the VA to meet the growing medical needs of military retirees and the Iraq war. In March 2004, Senator Lieberman cosponsored an amendment to the Budget Resolution which, although not agreed to, would have created a reserve fund to allow for an increase in veterans' medical care by $2.7 billion. That April, he wrote to the chairman and ranking member of the veterans' appropriations subcommittee asking for substantially increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical and prosthetic research program, to sustain current medical and prosthetic research initiatives and to provide the program growth necessary to attract and retain quality clinical staff.

 

 

Women’s Reproductive Rights

The Senator believes strongly in a woman’s right to choose, in comprehensive family planning services, and supports federal funding of these services for women both domestically and abroad. In July 2010, the Senator sent a letter to Chairmen Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), on the Appropriations Committee, requesting them to repeal the policy known as the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits federal funds from going to family planning organizations overseas that also provide abortion services. Though President Obama has already rescinded this policy, Senator Lieberman supports legislative action to permanently repeal it.

These recent efforts are part of Senator Lieberman long-standing efforts in support of women’s rights, including a woman’s right to choose whether or not to seek an abortion. In 2003, during the administration of President George W. Bush, Congress enacted a federal ban against partial birth abortions. Senator Lieberman opposed this legislation because it did not go far enough in protecting the health and well being of the mother.