Healthcare

The district that I represent in North Florida is predominantly rural, and I have seen firsthand the unique challenges that these communities face when it comes to access to quality, affordable healthcare.  Currently, rural hospitals and clinics are struggling due to inadequate reimbursement rates and physician shortages.  Also, folks in rural areas often have to travel hours to the nearest healthcare facility.  Too often rural communities are left out of national policy decisions, and this must change.

Yesterday, I joined my colleagues, Reps. Pomeroy and Walden of the Rural Health Care Coalition, to introduce new legislation to improve access to healthcare services in rural America.  The Healthcare Access and Rural Equity (H-Care) Act (HR 6030) is comprehensive, bipartisan legislation that helps to stabilize elements of our nation's rural healthcare infrastructure and correct many inadequacies in the current system.  Specifically, this legislation raises reimbursement rates to rural health clinics, extends several expiring Medicare payments for rural practitioners, and increases payments for rural ground ambulance services.  I encourage all of my colleagues to support HR 6030 so we can better meet the needs of our constituents in rural areas.

Congresswoman Maloney and I unveiled federal legislation yesterday to reopen the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) to provide financial assistance to the heroes who worked at Ground Zero. Our bill comes one day after the release of a Mt. Sinai study which revealed that 70% of 9/11 responders have developed new or worsening respiratory problems as a result of their service.

The bipartisan legislation is named in honor of Detective James Zadroga, who is the the first 9/11 responder to have his death directly attributed to his exposure to the toxins of Ground Zero. Our bill would ensure that rescue workers, students, federal employees and residents in the area have - for the very first time - access to federal funding for treatment of health issues due to 9/11.

Specifically, the legislation removes the December 22, 2003 deadline for filing a claim with the fund, allows a revaluation of certain claims and removes the arbitrary deadline that would only make eligible those who were at Ground Zero within 96 hours of the attacks.

This legislation is needed because the long-term health impacts of 9/11 will remain unclear for many years. Therefore, it's essential that federal resources be available to treat those who are sick or injured today as well as workers who fall ill in the future. The 9/11 heroes who dug through the rubble to find those who were lost and who cleared the site of debris now face their own medical challenges. The Fund represents the most realistic and efficient way to ensure that those who need medical treatment get it without undue delay.

While the cost of Medicare will inevitably continue to grow, we must ensure that taxpayer dollars are well spent and that health care will become affordable. That's why, when elected, I will fight to require Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices and close the coverage
gap known as the 'donut hole.' Curt Weldon has taken $62,000 in donations from the pharmaceutical and health product industry for his campaigns as well as $144,000 from insurance companies. It comes as no surprise that the giant drug companies are funding commercials thanking Curt Weldon; they've raked-in billions in profits as a result of the Bush/Weldon Medicare D plan at the expense of local seniors. It's ironic that these ads have aired just as an untold number of Pennsylvania seniors are facing the coverage gap known as the 'donut hole.'

This Labor Day, there should be no confusion for Republicans as to why Americans are fed up with their economic policies and are looking for a change.  A recent Census Bureau report shows that 37 million Americans are living in poverty, and the number of those living in the category of extreme poverty has risen sharply.  The data also reveals that income from earned wages fell in 2005 when compared to 2004.  This is the second straight year in a row that wages have dropped for men, and the third consecutive year wages have fallen for women.

In simple terms, the report shows that more families are living paycheck to paycheck, unable to save for college for their kids or afford health insurance.  Americans are increasingly concerned that the American dream will not come true for their families and that their children will not have it better than they did.

Democrats believe that hard work should be rewarded with fair pay, and one way to ensure that is by increasing the minimum wage.  Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997 and, consequently, it is at its lowest level in fifty years (when adjusted for inflation).  A full-time minimum wage worker earns only $10,700, which is dramatically below the poverty line for a family of four.

The time has come for Congress to raise the minimum wage.  Democrats believe that an increase from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over two years is a reasonable increase.  In the wealthiest nation on earth, it is simply unconscionable that hardworking Americans do not make enough money to meet their families most basic needs.  Democrats are committed to a new direction for our country that will raise the minimum wage and bring Americans who work hard and play by the rules out of the grip of poverty.

Shelbie Oppenheimer wants to see her daughter grow up.

Yes, politics and policy can sometimes be that simple. People on the campaign trail often comment on how hard it must be to run for office. They ask me: why put in the hours? Why shake the endless hands? Why meet the countless folks?

The answer is simple: the chance to meet – and one day help – courageous people like Shelbie.

Shelbie lives just outside of Philadelphia in New Hope, with her husband and eight year old daughter Isabel. A little over a decade ago she noticed a slight twitch and weakness in her left hand. Like most of us, she didn’t think too much about it. A few months later, she noticed the muscles in her hand had deteriorated further, so she and her husband sought medical advice. After a barrage of tests, she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - a fatal disease that will eventually leave her unable to walk, talk or breathe.

She was 28 years old. Read more...

Yesterday, my campaign launched a research website that details the flawed legislative record of Rep. Mike Ferguson. I hope people will visit the website to learn the truth about Mike Ferguson’s positions on issues like Iraq, prescription drugs, stem cell research, and a woman’s right to choose. The voters in the 7th District in New Jersey are beginning to recognize how out of touch Mike Ferguson is with their concerns. Visit the website, and you will see what they are coming to realize about Mike Ferguson and his disturbing record in Congress.

Recently, my campaign began airing a commercial on cable television that notes the disappointing direction Bush Republicans have taken our country in these past few years. The President and his rubber-stamp Republican Congress have failed us in Iraq and in the fight to lower the cost of prescription drugs and gasoline prices. We need common-sense change in Congress, and we need it soon. Watch my commercial and let me know what you think.

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stood up to outside pressures and rejected a petition by Barr Pharmaceuticals to allow the morning-after pill to be sold over-the-counter.  At the time, the FDA cited concerns about the lack of research on the potential effects of the drug on the health of adolescent girls.

The fact that those concerns remain unanswered makes it hard to understand the agency’s about face yesterday.  Instead of answering the questions raised by the 2004 petition, the FDA decided to disregard them completely and create a dual-marketing scheme that puts Barr’s profits above the safety of our children. The plan approved by the FDA creates a two-tier system that allows adults to purchase the drug over-the-counter, but requires minors to have a doctor’s prescription.  This is an entirely new type of approval that has not been authorized by Congress and has not undergone a formal rule-making process.

This scheme puts the health of adolescent girls at risk. Despite claims by the FDA and Barr laboratories that this policy protects children, under this approval the drug can be easily obtained and redistributed to kids while research about its dangers remains inconclusive.

Yesterday's decision by the FDA is misguided to say the least. Approving the sale of a controversial drug under this strange arrangement, without Congressional input, and without clear guidelines for enforcement sets a dangerous precedent.  In essence, the FDA has fashioned new complicated and unclear standards for prescription drug approval based on one individual drug application.

The Republican war on science suffered a defeat today when the Food and Drug Administration finally approved Plan B for over-the-counter purchase. The President's appointees to the agency and his allies in Congress have been stonewalling this women's health issue for more than three years, despite overwhelming support from the scientific and medical community, as well as from women's health groups. The FDA went so far as to ignore the findings of its own scientific staff, ignoring the facts and distorting public health concerns for political gain.

Former Assistant FDA Commissioner Susan F. Wood resigned in protest, saying she could "no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled." Her courageous stand brought much needed attention to the issue, and today we see it was not in vain. Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray have held the Administration's feet to the fire, providing necessary oversight by preventing Bush crony Andrew von Eschenbach from serving as FDA Director.

Sadly, the furor over Plan B is just one struggle in the Bush Administration's attempts to put politics over science. As Rep. Henry Waxman extensively documented last month, federal support for "abstinence-only" education programs has expanded rapidly under the Bush Administration. The federal government will spend approximately $170 million on abstinence-only education initiatives during the current fiscal year, more than twice the amount spent in fiscal year 2001. As a result, millions of children and adolescents each year receive abstinence-only education, which promotes abstinence from sexual activity while failing to teach basic facts about contraception. You can read Waxman's report here.

The news on Plan B sends a loud and clear message - science can not be trumped by the Republicans' ideology. Reproductive rights, family planning, and contraception are personal medical issues that should be discussed between families and their doctors - not turned into political fodder to appease far right extremists. American women have waited far too long for this crucial victory that it is a step in the right direction.

For the vast majority of beneficiaries, the program has been working as intended.  If this problem is the result of a system flaw, we need to fix that flaw so that we don’t see more errors down the road.  It is also important that the refunds erroneously given out to the 230,000 beneficiaries be recovered in a way that is most unproblematic for them.