Vice President's Health Initiatives

Health Care

Al Gore has worked to expand access to affordable health coverage, and also to invest in research that can treat and even cure dread diseases:

· Leading the fight to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights - so Americans always get the best health care, not just the cheapest.

· Covering millions of uninsured children - through the Children's Health Insurance Program, the largest investment in children's health in a generation.

· Protecting Medicare - and fighting to cover prescription medicine under Medicare. Al Gore led the fight against the Gingrich Congress to protect Medicare from deep cuts. Now he is committed to adding an affordable new prescription drug benefit to Medicare -- and to ensuring the Medicare trust fund is never weakened or raided for other purposes.

· Improving treatment, research, and prevention against disease. Al Gore has fought for a wide range of initiatives to improve prevention, research, and treatment against diseases -- including new initiatives to allow Medicare to cover cancer clinical trials, better services and care for people with mental illnesses, and better prevention and treatment for people with HIV/AIDS.

· Preventing children from smoking. Al Gore has been at the center of the administration's efforts to stop one of the leading preventable causes of disease in America - underage smoking. He has fought to win for the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products; he has worked to cut off tobacco ads aimed at children; and he has worked to enact the toughest-ever measures to curb kids' access to tobacco.

· Leading in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Al Gore has worked to improve access to anti-AIDS medicines, and to increase research and development into new therapies, including an anti-HIV vaccine.

· Improving mental health treatment, enhancing prevention, and bolstering research. Together with Tipper Gore, a longtime advocate for those with mental illness, Al Gore has worked to move toward equal treatment for people with mental illness by every health plan in America.

· Preventing discrimination based on genetic information. Al Gore strongly supports legislation that would prevent discrimination in health insurance on the basis of genetic information.

· Helping people with disabilities return to work. The Clinton-Gore administration signed a new law that lets people with disabilities keep Medicare when they return to work -- and helps states provide Medicaid coverage for people with disabilities who return to work.



Health Initiatives

Crime Initiatives

Communities Initiatives

Economy Initiatives

Education Initiatives

Environment Initiatives

Family Initiatives

Foreign Policy Initiatives

Livability Initiatives

Reinvention Initiatives

Technology Initiatives

The 1996 Telecommunications Reform Bill

Welfare Initiatives


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