Senator Feinstein believes medicine is not just a business and must be about providing quality care to those in need. A top priority is working to ensure that the State of California and the nation has the best health care system in the world.   Senator Feinstein's record on health care includes:


Expanding Access to Quality Heath Care

Patients' Bill of Rights - Senator Feinstein is a cosponsor of a strong Patients Bill of Rights, which covers all 161 million people who have health insurance, guarantees access to specialists and holds HMO's accountable for the medical decisions they make. She also sponsored an amendment to the Patients' Bill of Rights to ensure that medical decisions are made by doctors and patients, not health insurance company bureaucrats.

Hospital Length of Stay - Senator Feinstein sponsored legislation to require managed care companies to provide coverage for hospital lengths of stay as determined by the attending physician in consultation with the patient.

Preventive Care - Senator Feinstein supports requiring all insurance policies to cover preventive services for children, including prenatal care, well-baby care and immunizations. Also supports requiring Medicare to cover preventive services for beneficiaries.

Preexisting Conditions - Senator Feinstein voted for successful legislation to ensure that individuals with preexisting conditions or disabilities can obtain insurance and health care.

Increased Access to Information - Senator Feinstein sponsored legislation to give patients and health care professionals access to information through a toll-free Hotline for Disease Research, listing research projects that are underway and clinical trials that are available.  This legislation was signed into law on November 21, 1997 and can be accessed at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Health Insurance for Low-Income Families - Senator Feinstein introduced legislation to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program to cover nearly 3 million low-income parents of these children nationally, including 350,000 in California.

Childhood Vaccinations - Senator Feinstein sponsored legislation to expand access to childhood vaccines for more than a half-million California children through the Vaccines for Children program, which supplies federally purchased vaccines free to low-income, uninsured children.

Disproportionate Share Hospitals - Senator Feinstein cosponsored legislation that would freeze Medicaid Disproportionate-Share Hospital (DSH) payments at their 2000 levels for 2001 and 2002. DSH payments were cut to help balance the federal budget in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. In California, this legislation would restore $164 million to 132 hospitals.

Reimbursement Rates - Senator Feinstein has urged has urged California officials to increase the payment rate to providers whose patients' care is paid by Medi-Cal.

Affordable Health Care for Seniors

Medicare Solvency and Prescription Drugs - Senator Feinstein is working to ensure the long-term solvency of Medicare for all seniors.  She has also cosponsored and voted for legislation to ensure seniors have access to dependable, affordable prescription drug coverage.

Cancer Research & Prevention Programs

Leadership in the War on Cancer - Senator Feinstein is Co-chair of the Senate Cancer Coalition.  She is also Vice-chair with Co-chairs former President George Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush of the National Dialogue on Cancer, an historic initiative that brings together more than 130 leaders representing public, private and nonprofit sectors to collaborate in their efforts to win the war against cancer.

The Breast Cancer Stamp - Senator Feinstein sponsored legislation to create the breast cancer research stamp.  The legislation was signed into law on August 13, 1997 and the stamp has raised roughly $30 million for breast cancer research.  She also led the effort for the stamp to be reauthorized in July 2000.

Coverage of Mammograms/Cancer Screening - Senator Feinstein sponsored and won aproval of legislation to require that Medicare cover mammograms for Medicare recipients 40 years old or older. Recognizing that one of the best ways to reduce cancer death rates is through increased screening, she is also the sponsor of legislation to require health plans to cover cancer screenings.

Coverage for Breast Reconstruction Surgery - Senator Feinstein co-sponsored a 1998 law to require health plans to pay for breast reconstruction surgery. Senator Feinstein is also the co-sponsor of legislation to eliminate "drive-through mastectomies" and require health plans to cover second opinions by specialists to confirm or refute a cancer diagnosis.

Increased Research Funding - Since Senator Feinstein took office, federal funding for cancer has increased from $1.99 billion to $4.2 billion, a 47% hike. Senator Feinstein also supports doubling funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over five years, and has urged the President to submit a budget that reflects this increase.

National Cancer Act - Senator Feinstein introduced the National Cancer Act of 2002, legislation that creates a new comprehensive battle plan to modernize and re-energize the nation's fight against cancer. The bill will improve basic cancer research, create incentives for the transformation of that research into effective treatments, prevent cancer when possible and improve the quality of care to patients.