Issue Position: Healthcare

Issue Position

Health care is one of the issues about which Jerry is most concerned. He has spent much of his career fighting for affordable, high-quality health care and universal coverage, which he views as basic necessities without which a civil society cannot prosper. Knowing well that millions of people around the nation have inadequate coverage or no coverage at all, Jerry worked hard in support of health insurance reform in Washington, and fought for the strongest bill possible, for a robust public option, for women's reproductive rights, and for consumer protections for middle and working-class people. Jerry has consistently received 100% ratings from the American Public Health Association, the Children's Health Fund, and other respected health care associations.

Jerry has long been committed to women's health care, and is a passionate believer in a woman's right to choose. This does not mean that he takes abortion -- or women's decisions leading up to it -- lightly, but he believes that no government or group or person should be able to force a woman down one path or another on such a private matter as reproduction. As a Vice Chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee's Constitution Subcommittee, he has regularly led House efforts to stop the Right's many attempts to whittle away reproductive rights through deceptive and dangerous measures like the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act and the so-called Partial Birth Abortion bill. In several congresses, Jerry has been a proud sponsor of the pro-choice community's signature bill, the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade into law and ensure that right-wing courts and state governments will not be able to limit or curtail the essential right to choose. His work has garnered him myriad accolades from women's health advocacy groups, including NARAL and Planned Parenthood.

Through his own familial experience, he has also become a major advocate for breast cancer prevention. He is the sponsor of the Mammogram and MRI Availability Act, legislation that would require insurance companies that cover diagnostic mammograms to also cover annual screening mammograms for women 40 and older, and MRI screenings for high-risk women. His bill would save lives and guarantee that cost is never a factor in deciding whether or not to get a mammogram.

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