Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

We spend more per capita on health services than any other nation in the world, and yet we still have over 46 million uninsured.

* Supported President Obama's FY 2010 budget, which includes a $634 billion reserve fund over ten years for a major healthcare overhaul, with options for employer coverage, private insurance, or a public plan option.

* Cosponsor of H.R. 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, which would provide universal healthcare coverage through a single-payer national health plan.

* Supported expansion of State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover low-income children in California and nationwide.

* Supported Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addition Equity Act, "mental health parity" which requires that all health plans offer the same treatment benefits for mental health coverage as they do for other physical illnesses.

* Supported the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, legislation to overturn Bush Administration cuts to Medicare physician payments and to eliminate Medicare caps on reimbursement for outpatient therapy such as physical and rehabilitative therapy.

* Supported research funding increases for cancer; HIV/ AIDS, psoriasis; diabetes; multiple sclerosis; lupus; autism; and other diseases and disorders.

* Wrote an amendment that prevented Kaiser Permanente from closing the Panorama City hospital after the Northridge Earthquake.

* Authored legislation to restore legal remedies for Americans with employer-provided health benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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