Healthcare

The crisis of HIV/AIDS has been at the forefront of the Congressional Black Caucus agenda for a long time—longer than I’ve been a member of the House—not only internationally, but domestically.  African Americans constitute 12 percent of the nation’s population, yet they account for 50 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in America.  African American women account for 67 percent of female HIV/AIDS cases nationally.

It seems that there are those whose consciences are not pricked by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, perhaps because they think the spread of the disease is the result of what they consider to be lewd or lascivious behavior.  What they need to realize is that a lot of HIV/AIDS patients are victims twice over.  Many patients contract the disease as a result of sexual violence and statutory rape, and in some cases they are born with the disease as a result of their mother’s infection.

The city of Milwaukee, which comprises most of my district, has the second highest rate of teen pregnancy in the nation, with 71 percent of the babies born to teen mothers there being the product of statutory rape.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported that between 30 and 44 percent of teenage mothers have been victims of rape or attempted rape in the past, and that 23 percent of sexual assault victims are impregnated by their assailants.  These statistics show us that there is a lot of sexual activity occurring in our city that is nonconsensual and unprotected.

Earlier this week, I joined my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues in getting tested for the disease, receiving an HIV/AIDS “swab test

The author of this post is a former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

Today, I was pleased to join consumer, patient and industry groups to announce the formation of a broad bipartisan coalition to build public support and increase funding for one of our most important federal agencies, the Food and Drug Administration.

The Coalition for a Stronger FDA believes that the FDA must be given the resources it needs to build on its position as the world's premier consumer protection organization. The members of the Coalition understand that a stronger FDA is critical to not only protecting the food supply, but also ensuring that the next generation of medical innovations reach the market quickly and are as safe and effective as possible.

This is not a partisan issue. In fact, my two predecessors at HHS - Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Secretary Louis Sullivan - are serving with me as co-chairs of the Coalition. As Republicans and Democrats, we appreciate the important role the FDA plays in our daily lives by regulating roughly 25 percent of all consumer spending. Read more...

It is a shocking fact that in the United States at least one out of every ten pregnant women smokes. That number is even higher for women on Medicaid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that pregnant women on Medicaid are 2.5 times more likely to smoke than pregnant women not on the program.

Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke among pregnant women are known to be major causes of miscarriage, stillbirths, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The resources exist to reduce this problem. We just need to target them more specifically.  This is why I introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at helping women on Medicaid stop smoking during pregnancy.

The Smoke-Free Mothers and Babies Act of 2006 amends the Social Security Act to encourage states to provide pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid with access to comprehensive tobacco cessation services. The bill offers states an enhanced “federal medical assistance percentage Read more...

This week Congressmen Barrow and Boswell took the lead in helping states maintain healthcare coverage for low-income children during a projected funding shortfall in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in fiscal year 2007.

I co-sponsored the "Keep Kids Covered Act" because it provides the funding needed by states to fill the expected shortfalls in FY 2007 and ensure their SCHIP programs remain in operation without disrupting coverage for children.

President Bush has created more uninsured Americans than jobs during the six years of his Administration. The Barrow-Boswell legislation is critical to ensuring more Americans, particularly vulnerable children, do not lose the good healthcare coverage they have today.

Campaigning for Vermont's U.S. House seat I have heard a great deal about how the high cost of health care is hurting Vermonters.

Congress must do more to increase access to affordable, quality health insurance and we must work to control the costs in our health care system. I have proposed several common sense interim steps - including expanding and encouraging health savings accounts, allowing individuals and businesses to buy insurance across state lines and over the internet and expanding tax credits to help small businesses provide coverage for their employees.

Congress must also act to reform the nation's medical malpractice system. While my opponent does not support meaningful malpractice reform, I have heard from Vermont doctors how frivolous claims and unjustified settlements are driving physicians out of the state and forcing others to limit the procedures they're willing to perform. Malpractice insurance routinely eats up between 10 and 25 percent of a physician's income. Furthermore, defensive medicine - doctors performing tests and prescribing medications just out of fear of a malpractice claim - has been estimated at 10 percent of the cost of health care today. This must change.

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Yesterday I joined over ten thousand people at the American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill, which honors cancer survivors and those who are no longer with us. From across the country survivors and their loved ones, including several of my constituents from the Central and South Coast, came to Washington, D.C. to advocate for additional resources to continue this difficult struggle. With everyone wearing the same color t-shirt, the National Mall was transformed into a sea of purple. What a glorious sight!

The folks visiting our nation's capital today came from many diverse backgrounds, but they were united in their message of hope and dedicated to the goal of eradicating cancer. As I met with these Celebration Ambassadors I was both humbled and inspired.

I took their message of hope with me during yesterday's meeting of the Energy and Commerce Committee which was dedicated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. The research conducted by the NIH is a matter of life and death.

The research funded by the NIH provides hope for millions of cancer survivors, their loved ones, and the doctors, nurses, researchers and other health professionals that help fight this battle against cancer. I have been relentless in my fight to see funding for NIH increased. It is my hope that yesterday's Celebration on the Hill will convince more of my colleagues to join me in supporting this life saving research.

Access to health care for seniors in America is in jeopardy. Unless Congress acts now, on January 1 the federal government will begin nine years of Medicare cuts to the physicians who care for Medicare patients – our nation’s seniors. Medicare will automatically cut physician payments by about 40 percent over the next nine years, while practice costs increase about 20 percent.

The American Medical Association is concerned about the impact these cuts will have on seniors’ ability to see a doctor. Physicians want to see Medicare patients, but these cuts will force many doctors to make a tough decision. In an AMA survey, nearly half of physicians said they would be forced to either decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients if the first cut goes into effect.

Those physicians who try to continue to take new Medicare patients will be forced to make other difficult practice decisions, such as deferring the purchase of new medical equipment and information technology. When these types of decisions are made to keep the doors open and the lights on, America’s overall ability to improve health care in the digital age suffers.

Physicians’ concerns are shared by the federal advisory committee on Medicare (MedPAC), many in Congress, and the vast majority of Americans. A report by MedPAC shows that one in four Medicare patients seeking a new primary care physician is already having trouble getting an appointment. Eighty Senators and 265 House members have signed letters calling on their leadership to stop these cuts before Congress adjourns in just a few days. When told about the cuts, 86 percent of Americans surveyed said they were concerned that these cuts will hurt seniors’ access to care. Many Americans have shared their concern with their legislators. The AMA’s 1.2-million member “Patients’ Action Network

Whether you have seen the full-page ads when you opened your newspaper, or a billboard truck winding through the streets of Washington, AARP speaks loud and clear when we say “DON’T VOTE Read more...

The following is a joint entry from Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), sponsors of H.R. 1507, the Safe Food Act:

Last week we were all shocked to learn of the multi-state E. Coli outbreak from bagged spinach that claimed the life of one person and put so many in the hospital. This horrible outbreak reinforces the need for a strong, consolidated food safety inspection system.

That is why we are calling on Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) to hold a hearing on our "Safe Food Act" legislation. This legislation would consolidate all food safety agencies and establish the Food Safety Administration, responsible for the creation, administration and enforcement of our food safety laws. Under current law, food safety monitoring, inspection and labeling functions are spread across 12 agencies in the federal government. The involvement of so many agencies can result in duplication of responsibilities, service gaps and inconsistencies and confusion about which agency oversees different types of food.

E. coli is most often associated with contaminated meat, but this outbreak demonstrates the need to be alert on all fronts. That is why the Energy and Commerce committee should act on the Safe Food Act immediately.

Would you purchase a car without reading what costs the car dealership added?  Then why should we expect health care consumers to purchase their care without seeing the true cost?

Outside of terrorism and the War in Iraq, the affordability of health care is among most American's chief concerns.  One reason why health care does cost so much is that it is difficult for the consumer to influence the price at any point.  A myriad of payers, government and third parties have obscured the cost of care over time to the point where it is even difficult for practitioners to know how much services cost.

I have devised a new way of looking at health care transparency.  My legislation, H.R. 6053, The Health Care Price Transparency Act of 2006, will oblige states to create systems that would require hospitals to disclose charges, to provide access to that information, and to have health plans provide a statement of the estimated out-of-pocket costs of an individual for anticipated future health care services.

The American health care system needs a healthy dose of transparency so that consumers can truly be knowledgeable and responsible for making their own health care decisions.