Health Care

ENSURING ACCESS TO QUALITY TREATMENT

Read about Senator Feingold's comprehensive proposal to provide quality health care for all Americans

"We need to take a fresh look at the health care system in America. Today there are 40 million Americans who lack health insurance. The reality for these 40 million Americans is that if they get sick, they might not be able to afford to see a doctor, sometimes until it is too late. Today in our country there are 18 million seniors who lack prescription drug coverage. And there are millions more for whom the high price of prescription drugs means having to stretch their budget to the breaking point.

The health care system in America is in disrepair and needs crucial reform. I am dedicated to expanding the availability of health care to all Americans. I feel strongly that an individual's health should not be compromised on account of income or geographic location. To make quality health care a fact of life for every American, I have consistently fought to reform Medicare and protect its solvency, pass a meaningful Patient's Bill of Rights, and maintain affordable prescription drugs for seniors."


ACHIEVEMENTS

Recognition of Senate Voting Record: The American Public Health Association has awarded Senator Feingold with consistently high rankings, including a perfect 100% rating for his votes on public health issues in 1999, 2000, and 2003.

Standing up for quality health care for all Americans: Senator Feingold believes the time is ripe for a major reform of our current health care system. He proposes a two pronged approach to ensure that all Americans have health care coverage. First, he proposes a major overhaul of the current system, which would require states to submit a plan to move toward comprehensive health care coverage, coverage that must be as good as the health care Members of Congress receive. States would have great flexibility as to how they provide coverage, and the federal government would provide significant financial and technical assistance as well as oversight. Second, Feingold has introduced a bill that would create a process to force the Congressional Leadership to bring up the issue in a timely matter. Without forcing such a debate, there will be no serious opportunity for change.

Read more about Senator Feingold's comprehensive proposal to provide quality health care for all Americans

Fighting for a Meaningful Prescription Drug Benefit: Senator Feingold believes very strongly that we must ensure quality health care with a prescription drug benefit under Medicare for all seniors. However, Senator Feingold voted against the recent so-called prescription drug bill because he believed it was an attack on Medicare. It doesn't provide an adequate prescription drug benefit and threatens to privatize Medicare. It fails seniors, and is a handout for big HMOs, insurance companies, and drug companies, including direct subsidies of $12 billion. The legislation restricts the re-importation of lower-cost U.S.-made drugs from Canada, and expressly prohibits Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices like private insurance companies do.

Read more about why Senator Feingold voted against the recent Medicare bill

Working to fix the problems with the new Medicare law: Senator Feingold is working to fix many of the problems in the flawed Medicare bill. He is a cosponsor of the bipartisan Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2004, which would allow for the safe reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada. He has also introduced legislation to allow the federal government to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs offered under Medicare, and cosponsored the efforts to close loopholes that stall generic prescription drugs from coming to market. He has introduced bills to protect seniors who choose to buy prescription drugs from Canada from being discriminated against and to make companies offering the new Medicare prescription drug discount card pass along at least 90% of the savings they negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on to the beneficiaries who sign up for their card. Finally, he has introduced legislation to eliminate over $10 billion of the slush fund for HMO's and PPO's included in the Medicare conference report recently signed into law by President Bush. The fund does nothing for people who rely on Medicare, but hands over billions of dollars to HMOs.

Ensuring Medicare Fairness: In January 2003, Senator Feingold introduced Medicare Fairness Legislation into Congress to ensure that Wisconsin residents receive their fair share of Medicare benefits. Under the current Medicare system, Wisconsin residents pay the same Medicare payroll taxes as the rest of the country, but receive fewer benefits. Wisconsin Medicare beneficiaries receive on average $3,795 in Medicare benefits per year, the eighth to the last in the country. In Louisiana, however, beneficiaries receive on average $6,720 in Medicare benefits per year. Senator Feingold has teamed up with Wisconsin hospitals, doctors, and seniors to fix this grossly unfair system, and will continue to fight to secure equitable benefits for all of Wisconsin's seniors, and is proud to have authored the amendment that the Budget Committee agreed to during the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution, which helped make the inclusion of a Medicare fairness provision in the final Medicare prescription drug bill possible. This amendment will reduce the inequities in Medicare reimbursement payments, and encourage high-quality, cost-effective Medicare practices.

Making Life-Saving Equipment Accessible for Schools and Rural Communities: In July of 2003, the President signed into law the ADAM Act, part of Senator Feingold's continuing effort to lower cardiac arrest rates across America. This legislation, which Senator Feingold introduced with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), establishes a national resource center to provide schools with the "how-to" and technical guidance to set up a public access defibrillation program. The ADAM Act continues the work started by Senator Feingold and Senator Collins' Rural AED Act, which provides rural areas with the funds they need to purchase defibrillators and train first responders in their use.

Making Home Health Care Available for Seniors: Senator Feingold is proud to have introduced the bipartisan Home Health Nurse and Patient Act of 2001. This legislation will allow home health care providers to care for patients, while immediately addressing the nursing shortage by drawing nurses back to the home health nursing profession. Senator Feingold led the bipartisan, majority effort in the Senate to prevent harmful cuts and the addition of a new home health care copayment from occurring. Senator Feingold has also worked to ensure the availability of home health care for America's seniors by co-sponsoring the Medicare Home Health Equity Act of 1998 and the Bipartisan Fairness in Medicare Home Health Access Act of 1999.

Increasing Access to Dental Care: Senator Feingold strongly believes that basic dental care should not be considered a luxury. Unfortunately, dental care has become a luxury many middle and low-income families cannot afford. Senator Feingold has taken a lead role in legislation that increases access to dental care for the poor and the uninsured. His legislation, the Dental Health Care Expansion Act of 1999, which has become law, enables communities to hire new dentists and encourages private dentists to treat more Medicaid patients.

Supporting Mental Health Parity: Senator Feingold supports the original Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (S. 2031) and the efforts to expand the coverage of that law. He also supports the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act of 2003 (S. 486), and has urged his colleagues to consider this important legislation and bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Supporting Investment in the NIH: Senator Feingold strongly supports strengthening our investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has long supported doubling the budget of NIH, and he strongly supports providing sufficient funding to the NIH to maintain the important biomedical research underway there. NIH research is indispensible to advancing our knowledge of devastating diseases and furthering the search for cures.

Supporting Stem Cell Research: Senator Feingold supports allocating federal funds to stem cell research. This research could lead to breakthroughs in treatments for many diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries.

Supporting Community-Based Care: Senator Feingold has introduced legislation that allows individuals with severe disabilities to remain with their families and loved ones in their own homes and communities. These reforms are based on Wisconsin's Community Options Program, which has used flexible home and community-based services to help thousands of elderly and younger people with disabilities stay out of nursing homes, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fighting for a Patients' Bill of Rights: Senator Feingold supports passage of a meaningful Patients' Bill of Rights package that keeps medical decisions in the hands of health care professionals. Senator Feingold believes that the doctor-patient relationship is fundamental to quality care and trust. During consideration of the Patient's Bill of Rights legislation in 1999, Senator Feingold co-sponsored amendments to guarantee access to emergency care; access to specialists (including pediatric specialists); coverage of clinical trials and needed drugs; banning "drive-thru" mastectomies; and accelerating the deductibility of insurance premiums for the self-employed.

READ MORE

Time to address health care issue, (Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, September 4, 2004)

Feingold looks at health, jobs, (Rhinelander Daily News, August 26, 2004)

Feingold favors flexibility for reform, (Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, August 25, 2004)

Feingold sees crisis in rising health costs, (La Crosse Tribune, August 24, 2004)

Agnesian HealthCare grant provides defibrillators for nine area communities, (Fond du Lac Reporter, August 23, 2004)

Health care costs vs. business health, (Capital Times, August 13, 2004)

Feingold pushing for revamping of health care system, laws to strengthen U.S. jobs, (Superior Daily Telegram, August 12, 2004)

Feingold makes jobs, health care his top priorities, (Ashland Daily Press, August 11, 2004)

U.S. Sen. Feingold takes look at city's Main Street program, (Watertown Daily Times, August 7, 2004)

Senators push for bill to allow drug imports, (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 6, 2004)

Senator Russ Feingold unveils a unique plan to give all Americans quality healthcare, (Milwaukee Community Journal, August 5, 2004)

Feingold bill would force congress to act on health care reform, (Milwaukee Courier, July 10, 2004)

Feingold zeroing in on health care, (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 12, 2004)

Editorial: Start health care debate for all citizens, senator, (Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, April 8, 2004)

Feingold calls for Medicare equity, (Marshfield News Herald, December 14, 2002)