Tim is standing up for access to quality, affordable health care for every Virginian. That’s why he is working to lower health care costs and protect health care coverage for Virginians as a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
In the U.S. Senate, Tim was a deciding vote to preserve the Affordable Care Act, protecting the health care coverage of 1.3 million Virginians with a pre-existing condition. He took on Big Pharma to lower the cost of insulin, so now drug companies cannot charge more than $35 for this life-saving medication. Tim was a deciding vote for the American Rescue Plan, which included a provision from his Medicare-X plan to lower health care premiums and included funding to speed up the distribution of life-saving vaccines and to reopen schools safely. He also enacted bipartisan bills expanding access to medical products and accelerating FDA processes for approvals of certain drugs.
Tim has been a leading voice in the U.S. Senate to tackle the substance use disorder crisis that has hurt families across the Commonwealth. He worked across the aisle to pass the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which included his proposals to help ensure job training is incorporated into recovery programs and that the kids who are hurt by this crisis get the resources they need. And he was a deciding vote to pass the American Rescue Plan, which provided Virginia with nearly $70 million in funding to bolster mental-health and substance-abuse programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim is also working with both parties to prevent suicide and burnout among health care professionals, leading the charge to pass the reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, legislation named after a physician from Charlottesville, Virginia, who was working on the frontlines of the pandemic who died by suicide.
Working across the aisle to improve public health, Tim led the fight to raise the federal tobacco age from 18 to 21 years old and help protect young people from the dangers of nicotine. He has also been a champion for the National Institute of Health to study pediatric disease, introducing and passing into law the Gabriella Miller Act, legislation that authorized $12.6 million per fiscal year through FY23 for pediatric disease research. The legislation was named after a Leesburg, Virginia, resident who died from a rare form of brain cancer at 10 years old. Tim is still fighting to build on his work and provide new sources of funding to the program he helped create so we can combat more pediatric diseases.