Highlights of Senator Boxer's Record on Health Care

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Senator Boxer has worked to improve the quality, reduce the cost, and expand the reach of our health care system throughout her entire career.

• Ensuring Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans:  Senator Boxer is committed to ensuring that all Californians have access to quality, affordable health care.  She has introduced legislation to create a $2000 tax deduction to help families pay for part of the costs of health insurance premiums.  She has supported giving Americans access to the same health insurance program that members of Congress have.  Joining 27 other Senators, she cosponsored a resolution authored by Sen. Sherrod Brown calling for a public option to be included in any comprehensive health care reform.

• Cracking Down on Insurance Company Abuses:  Senator Boxer believes that our health care system should be about health, not about insurance company profits.  When you or a member of your family are sick, you shouldn’t have to worry about fighting with your insurance company.
  • In the 1990s, Senator Boxer wrote one of the first bills in the United States Senate to create a Patients’ Bill of Rights – to ensure that medical decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by HMO bureaucrats.  Since then, she has continued to fight to protect the rights of patients who are in HMOs.
  • She has cosponsored a bill to ensure that long term care insurance companies fairly pay claims.
  • She has supported legislation to prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to individuals on the basis of genetic information.

• Ensuring Affordable Prescription Drugs:  Senator Boxer has worked to ensure that Americans have access to lower-cost prescription drugs.
  • She has been a long-time supporter of efforts to allow the re-importation of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada – drugs that can be as much as 50 percent cheaper than the same drugs sold in the United States.
  • She has cosponsored legislation to allow the federal government to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices under Medicare – a process that was barred in President Bush’s Medicare prescription drug plan.
  • During the consideration of the Medicare prescription drug bill, Senator Boxer offered an amendment to fix the gap in coverage that causes seniors to pay for prescription drugs out of their own pocket with no help from Medicare – even after they have paid their premiums.

• Providing Health Care to Children:  Senator Boxer is an ardent supporter of increased access to health care for children.  In the 1990s, she cosponsored the law that created the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), providing millions of low-income children access to health care.  Recently, she fought to expand SCHIP to cover almost 700,000 children in California; it became law in early 2009.  She cosponsored legislation to fight childhood cancers and to keep children safe from food allergies.  To combat the growing epidemic of obesity in children, Senator Boxer has cosponsored legislation to help local communities provide more opportunity for children to engage in physical activity.  She has also cosponsored legislation to allow states to ensure that the children of legal immigrants have access to health care under SCHIP and Medicaid.

• Supporting and Expanding Medical Research:  Medical research has developed treatments and vaccines for many diseases previously thought untreatable.
  • When she was a member of the Senate Budget Committee in the 1990s, Senator Boxer supported efforts to double medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health.
  • She is the author of bills to increase research on prostate cancer, research on early detection of ovarian cancer, and research and treatment of arthritis.
  • Senator Boxer wrote a law to increase research on cardiovascular disease in women and has been an outspoken proponent of increased funding for breast cancer research.
  • She is also a cosponsor of legislation to increase research into a variety of other diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer’s, lupus, and hepatitis.  
  • Senator Boxer supports stem cell research and has worked to ensure that critical research to benefit those suffering from some of the most devastating diseases and conditions can proceed.

• Expanding the Health Care Workforce:  Highly qualified medical professionals are essential to quality health care.
  • Senator Boxer wrote legislation to require that hospitals have enough nurses to ensure proper care.
  • She is also the author of a bill to ensure that health care workers are prepared to meet the health care needs of a growing population of older Americans by paying off the student loans of health care workers who agree to serve seniors.
  • She cosponsored bills to provide scholarships to health care professionals who agree to serve in rural and other medically underserved areas and who agree to work in public health agencies – and to provide student loan relief to mental health care providers who agree to treat children. 
  • Senator Boxer has cosponsored legislation to expand community health centers and recruit more health care providers through the National Health Services Corps.
  • She has cosponsored legislation to recruit more dental professionals, to strengthen the faculty in nursing schools, and to create more nursing education programs.

• Improving Health Care for Women:  The health problems facing women are often different than the health problems facing men.  Too often, however, women’s health concerns have not been given sufficient attention.
  • To raise the profile of women’s health issues and to increase attention paid to the health care needs of women, Senator Boxer supports legislation to establish an Office of Women’s Health within various agencies of the federal government.  She has also supported efforts to ensure that health care workers are trained to meet the unique health care needs of women.
  • Senator Boxer supports legislation requiring health insurance policies to cover prescription contraceptives – and legislation to ensure that pharmacies fulfill a woman’s prescription for contraceptives.
  • Senator Boxer is the author of a bill that would help develop new technologies to better diagnose ovarian cancer.
  • She has been an outspoken proponent for measures to encourage routine mammography and supported legislation that became law to provide medical assistance to low-income women with breast or cervical cancer.
  • She supports legislation to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease and strokes in women.
  • Senator Boxer has supported legislation to increase the awareness of gynecologic cancers.
  • In 2008, Senator Boxer offered an amendment to cover low-income pregnant women under the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).
  • She supports legislation to provide education for mothers about postpartum depression and anxiety, increase research into postpartum depression, and provide for postnatal screening services.
  • Senator Boxer has supported legislation in the Senate to increase the federal government’s efforts in reducing maternal mortality in the United States and around the world.

• Improving Mental Health Care:  Senator Boxer supported legislation to eliminate the differences in insurance coverage between mental health benefits and benefits for other conditions.  She was a leader in the Senate in pushing for funding of the Graduate Psychology Education grant program, which supports psychology training and increases mental health services to underserved populations.  Senator Boxer is one of the Senate’s leaders on addressing mental health issues in the Armed Services.  She wrote the law establishing the Military Mental Health Task Force and continues to work across party lines to make sure that the military is equipped to deal with mental injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder and the high suicide rate in the Armed Forces.

• Fighting HIV/AIDS:  Senator Boxer is a long-time supporter of the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides the largest federal investment in community-based HIV/AIDS health care services.  She has repeatedly supported the program’s reauthorization and continues to press for the highest level of funding possible.  In addition, she supported legislation to allow states to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income HIV-infected individuals and voted to increase funding for the AIDS drug assistance program.  Senator Boxer is also one of the Senate’s leaders in the effort to fund international HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis programs.

• Addressing Minority Health Care Needs:  Racial and ethnic minorities have historically suffered from a lack of access to high quality health care services and face some unique health care challenges.
  • Senator Boxer has supported legislation to improve access to health care services for minorities and to eliminate the racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
  • Senator Boxer has supported legislation to fund research into diseases such as sickle cell anemia and diabetes that disproportionately affect minorities.
  • Senator Boxer has also supported legislation to ensure quality health care for Native Americans, and in 2008, she led the effort in the Senate to restore funding for the Urban Indian Health program to preserve access to health care for over 400,000 Native Americans.
  • Senator Boxer introduced the HOPE Youth Pregnancy Prevention Act, which is aimed at preventing teen pregnancy among at-risk and disadvantaged youth.

• Preserving and Strengthening Medicare: Medicare is a crucial part of the safety net for our seniors.  Senator Boxer is committed to preserving Medicare and making it stronger.
  • She helped lead the fight to stop a proposed increase in the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67.  And, she fought efforts to force seniors out of Medicare and into HMOs.
  • Senator Boxer has cosponsored legislation to expand Medicare coverage of mental health services, including by eliminating the lifetime limit on inpatient care, providing coverage for marriage and family therapy, and providing access to mental health counseling services.  She has also cosponsored bills to provide Medicare coverage of nutrition therapy services and to increase coverage for colon cancer screening tests.
  • Senator Boxer worked to make sure that doctors in California who participate in Medicare are fairly reimbursed for their services in a timely fashion.  And, she cosponsored legislation to postpone a reduction in Medicare payments to hospitals – a reduction that was threatening the financial survival of many hospitals.

• Making Long-Term Care More Affordable:  Senator Boxer cosponsored the Long-Term Care and Retirement Security Act to allow individuals to take a tax deduction for the costs of long-term care insurance premiums and a tax credit for the costs of long-term care services.

• Helping Those Who Care for Sick Family Members:  Senator Boxer was an early cosponsor and avid supporter of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which helps workers take time off from their jobs to care for an ailing family member or a new child.  She is currently supporting legislation to expand the scope of the law and to make more employees eligible.  In addition, Senator Boxer has supported creating a family caregiver tax credit to assist those caring for a parent or other family member at home.