Protecting Consumers from Unchecked Interest Rates
As we continue to fight in the Senate to reform Wall Street regulation and establish an independent consumer protection agency, I hope to also address a problem that has caused considerable pain for so many American families: runaway credit card interest rates. Credit card companies charge interest rates that until recently would have been illegal […]
Celebrating 40 Years of Earth Day
It’s been 40 years since Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin created Earth Day to focus America on the responsibility we share to care for our planet. Since then, we’ve made great strides to meet that responsibility, but we still have a long way to go. The year of the first Earth Day also marked the […]
What health-care reform means for R.I.
For more than a century, progressive leaders from Theodore Roosevelt to Edward Kennedy have fought against powerful interests to ensure that every American has access to affordable, secure health insurance. On March 23, when President Obama signed landmark health-reform legislation into law, that fight was finally won. The real winners will be the countless Rhode […]
Corporate justice at our expense
The Supreme Court’s recent slim majority decision in Citizens United has opened floodgates that long prevented corporate cash from drowning out the voices of American citizens in election campaigns. Those who care about the integrity of the American political process view this decision with concern and astonishment. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing […]
Closing the Medicare ‘Doughnut Hole’
During my travels throughout Rhode Island, I have met countless seniors who are frustrated and confused by Medicare’s prescription drug program – Medicare Part D. Specifically, Rhode Islanders are too often blindsided by the Part D coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” which exposes seniors to the full cost of prescription drugs after yearly drug expenses […]
Rx for those bankrupted by medical crisis
When 3-year-old Finnegan Burns fell ill with complications from cystic fibrosis, his parents did what any loving parents would do. Kerry and Patrick Burns put their lives on hold to see their son through his medical travails. Surgery after surgery, hospital after hospital, they remained by their child’s side as he fought to recover. This […]
Time for health insurers to compete
As the Senate considers historic reforms to health care and the health insurance industry, it should repeal the health and medical malpractice insurance industries’ exemption from federal antitrust laws. The exemption, enacted nearly 65 years ago, has served the financial interests of the insurance industry at the expense of consumers for far too long. Meaningful […]
Official Torture
The prosecutor is often first presented with a case as a “corpus delicti” – a bullet-riddled body in the street, for instance. That ordinarily is enough to justify investigation. Through investigation, the evidence may prove that there was not in fact a crime (it was a suicide or an accident) or that the fatal acts […]
Why a Public Option Matters in Health Care Reform
WASHINGTON FEW THINGS are as important in every family’s life as good health care. Knowing that when you get sick, you can see a doctor; that when your child needs a checkup, she or he can too; that if something goes wrong, you’ll have the very best care; and that the bills won’t force you […]
Health Reform That Works for Every American
This morning, millions of people all over this country woke up hoping today isn’t the day they get sick. Millions of Americans went to work wondering whether today would be the last day they get paid in a while. And millions sat up late last night at the kitchen table, to try to balance the […]
