SPECTER REALLY DOES CARE

National Institutes of Health

Funding Levels – As Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Senator Specter was successful in doubling the nation’s health research budget. He has called the NIH the “crown jewel” of the federal government as it conducts and funds some of the world’s finest research on diseases and medical treatments.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Sen. Specter successfully included a provision to increase the funding to the National Institutes of Health by $6.5 billion, for a total of $10 billion in the legislation. Since 1995, Sen. Specter has taken the lead to increase NIH funding from $12 billion to $30 billion.

In the last seven years, the cost-of-living adjustments for NIH funding have not been met, and there have been across-the-board cuts, so there has been an actual decline of $5.2 billion in funding. This $10 billion increase will stimulate the economy by producing good, high-paying jobs, and by reducing major illnesses.

Budget Amendments - In 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 Sen. Specter offered amendments to the budget resolution to increase NIH funding.

NIH Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act (S.3273) – In 2008, as Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Specter introduced S.3273 to provide the National Institutes of Health $5.2 billion in fiscal year 2008. This would ensure $1.2 billion for the National Cancer Institute and $4 billion for other NIH institutes..

The funding outlined in S.3273 was a result of collaboration with Sen. Specter, the NIH and the cancer community. On May 23, 2008, Sen. Specter wrote to NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni requesting his input on how much would it cost to cure cancer or at least make a major frontal attack on the many strains of cancer. Dr. Zerhouni responded on July 14, 2008, stating that NIH would needed $5..2 billion in 2008, of which $1.2 billion would be used by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This funding level would match the NCI’s professional judgment for FY08. Those funds would increase the success rate for grant approvals from 18 percent to 30 percent and would restore the purchasing power lost to inflation.

On June 6, 2008, Sen. Specter wrote to the cancer community asking for their cost estimate and time line to cure cancer. The community responded that it would take $335 billion over 15 years, including $1.2 billion in 2008, which is consistent with the legislation.

FY2008 NIH Supplemental Funding - In 2008, Sen. Specter was successful in securing $150 million in the FY08 Supplemental for NIH to increase medical research funding.

Stem Cells

Embryonic Stem Cells
Hearings: Sen. Specter has held 20 hearings directly relating to stem cell research, chairing the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee's first hearing regarding stem cells on December 2, 1998.

Legislation:
During the 109th Congress, the house companion bill to S.471, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, was passed by Congress, but vetoed by President Bush. The vote to override the veto in the House failed. The legislation would expand the number of stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research, thereby accelerating scientific progress toward cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases and debilitating health conditions.
In the 110th Congress, Sen. Specter is a lead cosponsor of S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which is identical to the legislation in the 109th Congress. The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act was passed by Congress, but a vote to override the veto in the house again failed.

Embryo Adoption - Since Fiscal Year 2002, Sen. Specter has included a total of $11 million for an Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign in LHHS Appropriations Acts. This funding has supported information and education activities that increase public awareness of embryo adoption, such as brochures given to in vitro fertilization patients, web sites, information sessions, and referral services.

Cord Blood Stem Cells - Sen. Specter was a lead cosponsor of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which was signed into law in 2005. The legislation directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to enter into contracts with qualified cord blood stem cell banks to assist in the establishment, provision, and maintenance of a National Cord Blood Stem Cell Banks Network. As Chairman and Ranking Member of the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Sen. Specter has worked to provide funding for this effort. For fiscal year 2008, $8.8 million was provided for cord blood programs, an increase of $6 million from fiscal year 2007.

Food and Drug Administration

Supplemental Funding - In the fiscal year 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill, Sen. Specter worked to include $150 million for the Food and Drug Administration to improve food and drug safety.

Medicare

Increased Medicare Physician Reimbursement – Sen. Specter has been a staunch supporter of providing physicians with a fair and equitable Medicare reimbursement.
In 2003, Sen. Specter voted in favor of removing a 4.4% reduction in physician payments and providing a 1.6% increase for physicians as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution.
Sen. Specter supported the Medicare Modernization Act, which removed a scheduled 4.5% reduction in Physician fees in 2004 and blocked an additional cut in 2005. Instead, physicians received a 1.5% increase in 2004 and 2005.
Sen. Specter voted in favor of the Deficit Reduction Act, which eliminated a planned reduction of 4.4% for 2006..
In 2007, Sen. Specter supported the Tax Relief and Health Care Act, which was signed into law. The bill included a provision to prevent a scheduled 5.1% reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physicians.
The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act, which the President signed in December 2007, prevented the implementation of the 10% reduction in Medicare physician payments and increased payments by 0.5% for six months.
On July 9, 2008, Sen. Specter voted in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6331 in order to prevent a 10.6% reduction in physician payments. On July 15, 2008, President Bush vetoed the bill. The House of Representatives voted to override that veto 383-41. When the bill came to the Senate, Sen. Specter voted in favor of the override, which passed the Senate 70-26 and enacted the legislation into law.

Medical Education Funding – In 2008, CMS sought to reduce funding to teaching hospitals by $375 million annually. With the large number of teaching hospitals in Pennsylvania Sen. Specter was the lead in opposition to this regulation. With 50 other colleagues Sen. Specter wrote to CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems asking him to repeal the proposed regulation. Despite this effort and the damage that it could cause teaching hospitals, CMS moved forward with the regulation.

Long Term Acute Care Hospital Regulation – Long term acute care refers to specialty medical care that is provided to patients with complex or chronic medical conditions (i.e.: patients on ventilators, stroke patients, patients with skin ulcers, that average a stay of 25 days or more). CMS put forth a regulation that would have hindered existing facilities in providing this care. Sen. Specter worked to reform this regulation by meeting with Acting Administrator Kerry Weems. Sen. Specter further worked with the Finance Committee to include a revision in S. 2499, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, that would prevent abuse of these Medicare payments and place a moratorium on the development of facilities. S.2499 was signed into law on December 29, 2007.

Medicare Legislation

Community Cancer Care Preservation Act - In the 109th and 110th Congresses, Sen. Specter has introduced legislation to improve Medicare reimbursements for community oncologists by modernizing the cost updating to provide accurate and timely payments to physicians treating cancer patients.

Medicare Quality Reporting Act - In 2007, Sen. Specter introduced S.1519, the Voluntary Medicare Quality Reporting Act, requiring that quality reporting for physicians be voluntary until a system for reporting can be established. While the reporting of quality measures is important, that system must be created with input from physicians; establishing a quality reporting system in coordination with physicians will provide the best possible program. Sen. Specter’s bill creates the parameters for this system to be implemented quickly and effectively.

Hospice – In 2008, Sen. Specter introduced legislation to prevent a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation from going into effect. The regulation called for a reimbursement reduction to hospice providers of $2.29 billion over five years.

Health Insurance Legislation

During the 102nd Congress, Sen. Specter pressed the Senate to take action on the health care market issue. On July 29, 1992, he offered an amendment to legislation then pending on the Senate floor, which included a change from 25 percent to 100 percent deductibility for health insurance purchased by self-employed individuals, and small business insurance market reforms to make health coverage more affordable for small businesses. Included in this amendment were provisions from a bill introduced by the late Senator John Chafee, legislation which Sen. Specter cosponsored and which was previously proposed by Senators Bentsen and Durenberger. When then-Majority Leader Mitchell argued that the health care amendment Sen. Specter was proposing did not belong on that bill, he offered to withdraw the amendment if the Majority Leader would set a date certain to take up health care, similar to an arrangement made on product liability legislation, which had been placed on the calendar for September 8, 1992. The majority leader rejected that suggestion, and the Senate did not consider comprehensive health care legislation during the balance of the 102nd Congress. My July 29, 1992 amendment was defeated on a procedural motion by a vote of 35 to 60, along party lines.

The substance of that amendment, however, was adopted later by the Senate on September 23, 1992, when it was included in a Bentsen/Durenberger amendment which Sen. Specter cosponsored to broaden tax legislation, H.R. 11. This amendment, which included essentially the same self-employed tax deductibility and small group reforms he had proposed on July 29 of that year, passed the Senate by voice vote. Unfortunately, these provisions were later dropped from H.R. 11 in the House-Senate conference..

On August 12, 1992, Sen. Specter introduced legislation entitled the Health Care Affordability and Quality Improvement Act of 1992, S. 3176, that would have enhanced informed individual choice regarding health care services by providing certain information to health care recipients, would have lowered the cost of health care through use of the most appropriate provider, and would have improved the quality of health care.

On January 21, 1993, the first day of the 103rd Congress, Sen. Specter introduced the Comprehensive Health Care Act of 1993, S. 18. This legislation consisted of reforms that our health care system could have adopted immediately. These initiatives would have both improved access and affordability of insurance coverage and would have implemented systemic changes to lower the escalating cost of care in this country.

On March 23, 1993, he introduced the Comprehensive Access and Affordability Health Care Act of 1993, S. 631, which was a composite of health care legislation introduced by Senators Cohen, Kassebaum, Bond, and McCain, and included pieces of S. 18. He introduced this legislation in an attempt to move ahead on the consideration of health care legislation and provide a starting point for debate. Sen. Specter was precluded by Majority Leader Mitchell from obtaining Senate consideration for his legislation as a floor amendment on several occasions. Finally, on April 28, 1993, he offered the text of S. 631 as an amendment to the pending Department of the Environment Act, S. 171, in an attempt to urge the Senate to act on health care reform. His amendment was defeated 65 to 33 on a procedural motion, but the Senate had been forced to contemplate action on health care reform.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, January 4, 1995, Sen. Specter introduced a slightly modified version of S. 18, the Health Care Assurance Act of 1995, which contained provisions similar to those ultimately enacted in the Kassebaum-Kennedy legislation, including insurance market reforms, an extension of the tax deductibility of health insurance for the self employed, and tax deductibility of long term care insurance.

Sen. Specter continued these efforts in the 105th Congress, with the introduction of Health Care Assurance Act of 1997, S. 24, which included market reforms similar to my previous proposals with the addition of a new Title I, an innovative program to provide vouchers to States to cover children who lack health insurance coverage. He also introduced Title I of this legislation as a stand-alone bill, the Healthy Children's Pilot Program of 1997, S. 435, on March 13, 1997. This proposal targeted the approximately 4.2 million children of the working poor who lacked health insurance at that time. These are children whose parents earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid, but do not earn enough to afford private health care coverage for their families.

This legislation would have established a $10 billion/5-year discretionary pilot program to cover these uninsured children by providing grants to States. Modeled after Pennsylvania's extraordinarily successful Caring and BlueCHIP programs, this legislation was the first Republican-sponsored children's health insurance bill during the 105th Congress.

During the 106th, 107th, 108th Congresses, Sen. Specter again introduced the Health Care Assurance Act. These bills contained similar insurance market reforms, as well as new provisions to augment the new State Child Health Insurance Program, to assist individuals with disabilities in maintaining quality health care coverage, and to establish a National Fund for Health Research to supplement the funding of the National Institutes of Health. All these new initiatives, as well as the market reforms that he supported previously, work toward the goals of covering more individuals and stemming the tide of rising health costs.

During the 106th Congress, a provision of S.24 was placed into law to allow self employed individuals were allowed to deduct 100% of their health insurance costs from their taxes the expense for purchasing health insurance.

Healthy Americans Act – In the 110th Congress, Sen. Specter cosponsored S.334, the Healthy Americans Act, to provide health insurance to all Americans. The Healthy Americans Act allows individuals to purchase private coverage through state-administered purchasing pools or retain their health care insurance through their employer. The plan, which has 17 cosponsors, would allow all individuals to obtain coverage. The plan also provides assistance to low-income individuals to ensure that all may have access to quality health care and portability for those who change jobs.

Nino’s Act - In 2008, Sen. Specter introduced S.2629, Nino’s Act, to provide drugs to children who are required to leave NIH medical research studies. This legislation will allow children who are having their disease successfully treated with NIH backed treatment to continue that treatment outside of the NIH through Medicaid.

Community Health Centers

Community health centers provide comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary health care services to medically underserved communities and vulnerable populations. Community health centers provide medical services to 15 million people annually.. Sen. Specter has supported this healthcare safety net in the LHHS Appropriations bills with funding of $2.06 billion in 2008.

Health Professions Assistance

Health Professions Training – The need for properly trained health workers is great and is greatest in areas that serve low-income and disadvantaged individuals. The Health Resources and Services Administration program works to enhance access to health care by developing a competent health workforce that can adapt to the population's changing health care needs and provide the highest quality of care. Not only does this program provide a higher standard of care it also provides good jobs for those who work with the program. To increase the work of this program, Sen. Specter supported $350 million for it in FY08.

Nursing Education – As Ranking Member of the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Sen. Specter has worked to combat an impending nursing shortfall.. By 2020, there could be nearly 100,000 less nurses in the workforce. This problem will only become more severe as the “baby boomers” grow older and nurses retire from the workforce. To address this shortfall, Sen. Specter supported $156 million to increase nurse education, practice and retention. This program provides scholarships, loans and loan repayments to nursing students, registered nurses and nursing faculty to raise the number of nurses, improve their skills and keep them in the nursing field.

Children

Head Start - Head Start programs promote school readiness by enhancing the development of children through educational, health, nutritional and social services.. These services engage parents in their children's learning and help them in making progress toward their educational and literacy goals. The assistance Head Start provides gives disadvantaged children a greater chance at success in school and life. In 2007, this program served over 900,000 children. To ensure that this program can continue to reach out to children, Sen. Specter supported $6.9 billion in 2008 as part of the LHHS Appropriations bill.

Healthy Start – Numerous studies have demonstrated that low birth weight does not have a genetic link, but is most often associated with inadequate or lack of prenatal care. Low birth weight is accompanied by health problems that last a lifetime. In 1984, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had the highest infant mortality rate of African-American babies of any city in the United States. As a result of successful prevention initiatives like the Federal Healthy Start program, Pittsburgh's infant mortality has decreased 24 percent.

Sen. Specter initiated action that led to the creation of the Healthy Start program in 1991, in order to improve pregnancy outcomes for women at risk of delivering babies of low birth weight, reduce infant mortality and the incidence of low-birth-weight births, and improve the health and well-being of mothers and their families. As chairman of the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, he worked with the first Bush administration and Ranking member Senator Harkin to allocate $25 million in 1991 for the development of 15 demonstration projects. This number grew to 96 projects in 2008. For fiscal year 2008, Sen. Specter helped secure $99.7 million for this vital program.

Adoption - With approximately 510,000 children currently in the foster care system, Senator Specter is committed to ensuring that crucial funds are available. As Ranking Member of the LHHS Senate appropriations subcommittee, he secured $6.92 billion for adoption and foster care programs in the FY08 LHHS Appropriations bill.

He also supported the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003, to reauthorize the Adoption Incentives program, which provides states with adoption incentive payments in order to increase the number of adoptions that occur through the foster care system. He is a member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and worked to resolve the issues surrounding Guatemalan adoptions in 2007.

Child Development Block Grant – This program provides funds to low income families to obtain child care. By supporting this program, Sen. Specter has recognized the need to improve the quality and availability of child care and increase childhood development. This program allows families to get the help they need to maintain a job and ensure their children are well taken care of. In FY2008, this program received $2.062 billion in FY08.

Aging

Senator Specter believes that special attention should be paid to the needs and concerns of our senior citizen population, particularly with the increasing age of the “baby boom” generation. The Senator currently sits on the Special Committee on Aging, which examines issues of importance to older Americans, including Medicare, pensions, Social Security and the Older Americans Act.

Elderly Nutrition – By supplying meals, the Elderly Nutrition Program, administered by the Administration on Aging, provides basic nutritional services to America’s seniors. Sen. Specter has supported this important program by securing $758 million in the FY08 LHHS Appropriations bill.

Caregiver Assistance – Many families, friends and neighbors care for an elderly individual or person with a disability who lives at home. This difficult situation can be very taxing for the caregiver and elderly individual. To assist with this tremendous undertaking Sen. Specter secured $159.7 million in FY2008.