I was proud to announce that I secured an additional $2.5 million in federal funding for Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown. I personally rewrote the formula used to allocate HHS funding to enable Samaritan to receive the funding after they were left out of earlier rounds of rural hospital funding because of a classification error. The North Country relies on its local hospitals to care for our families, and I’m glad that I have been able to help many of our community health centers receive the funding that they need to serve our region.

2018 Result: I was proud to vote in support of the 21st Century Cures Act, which passed the House in 2015. This bill will revolutionize our healthcare and ensure that we have a modernized regulatory system to ensure that cures get to patients as quickly as possible. This bill is an important investment in finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lyme and others – it is important for our seniors and the next generation.

In our district, and in communities across our nation, family caregivers devote their lives to giving their loved ones the best possible healthcare. Family caregivers raise the standard of living for seniors and those who are suffering, and we owe them our gratitude. I was proud to support the RAISE Family Caregivers Act that will help better support our nation’s family caregivers. 

I voted to delay the tax on high-quality healthcare plans to prevent an increase in healthcare costs on workers, families, and retirees who rely on employer-sponsored health coverage. Employer-sponsored coverage is an effective and affordable option for many hardworking families in the North Country, and I will continue to work to increase access to quality, affordable healthcare. 

I fought in Congress to put an end to the 12-year cycle of “doc fix” bills to give doctors and hospitals certainty in working within the Medicare system and allow seniors to keep affordable access to the doctors they’ve come to know and trust.

We must take care of our brave first responders, which is why I was so proud to work with the entire New York delegation to pass into law a measure that ensures those brave men and women who worked at Ground Zero following 9/11 will have the medical care they need for illnesses related to this work.