Nearly 1 in 4 Pennsylvanians reportedly go without Health Care for all or part of any given year, and 77% of those are members of working households. Our aging population means we have more people struggling to find the means to pay for prescription drugs and nursing care. Even more unfortunate is the fact that 258,000 Pennsylvanian children go uninsured each year.
Legislators must protect vulnerable Pennsylvanians. During my tenure in the House, I voted to expand PACE and PACEnet, Pennsylvania's prescription drug assistance program for seniors. I supported Governor Rendell's program, Cover All Kids, which provides health care for 30,000 Pennsylvanian children whose families earn too much to qualify for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but still can't afford to purchase insurance. In addition, my bill that expands state coverage of mammograms for low income woman 40 and over was signed by Governor Rendell in 2005.
As soon as I began my first term in the Senate, I introduced a package of bills that would help Pennsylvanians cope with varying health and medical situations:
- SB 398 - Safe Foods, Safe Families, would limit the use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals if those drugs are also used to treat infectious diseases in humans.
- SB 402 - Emergency Contraception, would encourage hospitals and health care facilities to provide services to sexual assault victims, and to provide information and services relating to emergency contraception.
- SB 406 - Prescription Contraception Equity, would prohibit insurance companies that provide prescription drug coverage from excluding prescription contraceptives from that coverage.
- SB 407- Dental Choice, would create a patient notification brochure that must be read by all Pennsylvanians before they receive a dental filling containing mercury.
- SB 1138 - Eating Disorder Coverage,
