Health Care

After many months of debate, Congress passed historic health care reform in March of 2010. Mike supported both H.R. 3590: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and H.R. 4872: the Reconciliation Act of 2010. Millions more Americans will now have access to affordable health care as a result of this legislation, which also prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition, and allows young people to remain covered by their parents' health insurance until age 26.

During the debate over health care reform, Mike also worked hard to protect Massachusetts' interests. As a result, $4 billion in funding was preserved for Massachusetts' health care system.

Mike strongly supports universal health care coverage and is disappointed that health care reform does not include a public insurance option, something he fought hard to add to the final bill.  Additionally, Mike proudly sponsors legislation to create a single payer system and supports other opportunities to create a public option. 

Mike has long fought to make high quality, affordable insurance available to all. 

• He co-founded the bi-partisan House Caucus on Community Health Centers, with another urban Democrat and two rural Republican colleagues from Texas and Florida.
• To ensure that insurance truly translates into access, he has been working to expand the Community Health Center program and is pleased that health care reform includes additional funding for community health centers.
• Since founding the Caucus, Mike has fought for additional funding. When the Bush Administration made significant expansion of CHCs a priority, Mike became a leading champion of this bipartisan effort. Over the last decade, enrollment in health centers has more than doubled, going from serving approximately 9.5 million patients nationwide in 2000 to almost 20 million today.

Mike has worked tirelessly to help Massachusetts retain its preeminence in health care education and innovation during his six terms in Congress. Our medical schools and teaching hospitals provide world-class health care, create thousands of high quality jobs and sustain growth industries such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Mike recognizes that these institutions are also an important part of the Commonwealth's safety net. Boston's internationally acclaimed Children's Hospital is the number one provider of care to low-income children on Medicaid in Massachusetts, yet before Mike Capuano came to its aid, federal funds were not available for Graduate Medical Education in pediatrics. GME is funded through the Medicare program, so hospitals not serving patients within the Medicare population were ineligible. Mike urged Boston Children's to unite with pediatric hospitals nationwide to secure support for their interns and residents.  With his help, they succeeded.

Health care is a major economic engine in the state. The health care industry provides close to 70,000 hospital jobs and tens of thousands more in clinics, nursing homes, laboratories and related industries.

Mike remains concerned about discrimination based on health status and disparities in access to care. He has:

• Co-sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act.
• Championed the Boston Public Health Commission's REACH initiative, which uses federal seed money to mobilize community health education and empowerment and increase diagnostic screenings in underserved neighborhoods.
• Fought successfully to restore funding for Boston Steps, part of the federal government's Steps to Healthier US initiative which provided funding to Boston for chronic disease control and prevention, particularly in areas where persistent health disparities exist.
• Led recent congressional efforts to increase funding for the Ryan White program, an initiative dedicated to ensuring care for those living with HIV and AIDS. Mike has worked with local and state agencies and community leaders during the program's previous and current reauthorization to ensure that Massachusetts continues to receive necessary resources.
• Led the effort to ensure that a number of Boston institutions, such as Boston Medical Center, would continue serving as federally funded HIV-AIDS clinical research sites investigating new treatments. Maintaining these sites in the community was vital to ensuring that diverse groups of patients have access to the latest treatments.