Health Care

As a former member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Michael worked with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass legislation that modernizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), advances medical innovation, and enhances patient access to life-saving treatments. Michael passed the Breakthrough Therapies Designation to expedite the FDA’s approval process for promising drugs and treatments. The designation has led to 317 life-saving innovations in cancer, cystic fibrosis, and other diseases.

Michael passed the bipartisan Research to Accelerate Cures and Equity (RACE) for Children Act and the Advancing Care for Exceptional (ACE) Kids Act to close the cancer research gap between adults and kids and improve care for kids with complex medical conditions. He also passed the No Surprises Act to end the practice of balance billing and protect patients from surprise medical bills.

As the mental and behavioral health crisis has devastated communities throughout Colorado, Americans struggle to access the mental and behavioral health care that they need when they need it. Michael introduced the Better Mental Health for Americans Act to increase access to mental and behavioral health services for kids, seniors, and low-income Americans.

As Michael looks towards the future of health care, he will continue to fight for better care for children, resources to combat the mental and behavioral health crisis; and funding for our rural hospitals and community health centers..

Too many Coloradans have had to make choices about health care that no one else in the industrialized world has had to make. In rural communities, limited competition leaves many Coloradans with fewer choices, and, in some cases, only one high-cost option. Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded health insurance coverage to more than 20 million people, too many Americans still live in areas with limited competition and unaffordable health care costs.

Michael’s Medicare-X Choice Act would begin to fix this. Led by Michael and Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Medicare-X is a true public option that would move the country closer to universal coverage by offering individuals, families, and small businesses additional high-quality, low-cost health insurance choices and create more competition in the marketplace.
The legislation would build on the Medicare framework to establish a public insurance plan offered on individual and small business health exchanges, allowing Americans to choose an existing private insurance plan or a public one.

Medicare-X would ensure that millions of Americans can claim a larger Premium Tax Credit. The American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act temporarily expanded this tax credit to help lower the cost of health care, and Michael is working to make this enhanced credit permanent. Medicare-X would use Medicare’s network of doctors, require similar reimbursement rates, and guarantee essential health benefits, such as maternity care and mental health services.