Health Care

Congresswoman Matsui has been a leader in Congress on a broad range of health care issues, from establishing and improving the Affordable Care Act, to reforming mental health and substance abuse care, to expanding the use of telehealth, and ensuring that medical research and the delivery system provide Americans with 21st Century cures and equitable access to quality care.

The Congresswoman is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, which oversees agencies and writes laws pertaining to public health, including emergency preparedness and response; private and public health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program); the regulation of food, drugs, vaccines and cosmetics; mental health; biomedical research and development; health disparities; health information technology, and more.

Affordable Care Act

At its core, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is about providing affordable access to high quality health coverage or all Americans. Congresswoman Matsui played a pivotal role in passing this historic health law, and has continued to advocate for building upon its foundation to increase coverage by lowering premiums for people buying coverage through the ACA marketplaces. 

There are a number of resources available to help people learn about their options through the Affordable Care Act.

Covered California is California’s health insurance marketplace where individuals, families and small businesses can purchase health insurance coverage. This is a free service that connects Californians with low-cost, high-quality health coverage under the ACA. Through Covered California, you may qualify for a discount on an ACA health plan, or get health insurance through the Medi-Cal program. You can visit coveredca.com to apply for coverage and see if you qualify for savings.   

Prevention and Public Health

The Affordable Care Act ensures that preventive services are covered with no cost-sharing. Congresswoman Matsui believes that early detection and intervention are key to better care and to ultimately saving lives. This is achievable when Americans have access to primary health care services, and that is why Congresswoman Matsui continues to champion expanding access to affordable coverage options and the use of innovative care delivery models like telehealth. 

Just as individuals rely on providers for their care, our communities rely on robust public health investments and initiatives to ensure equitable access to health resources. The Congresswoman has long supported the importance of community-based care, and led the effort to create the ACA’s Prevention and Public Health Fund, which is the nation’s first mandatory funding stream dedicated to improving our public health system.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congresswoman Matsui and the Energy & Commerce have worked to enact important policies enacted in relief laws responding to COVID-19. These policies included billions in financial support for hospitals and other health care providers, public health initiatives, broadband and telehealth, testing, vaccine distribution, mental health and substance use care, and premium tax credits to lower the cost of health plans on the ACA marketplaces.  

Expanding Medicaid

For over 50 years, the Medicaid program has successfully improved the ability of low-income Americans to access essential health services. Today, more than 80 million Americans depend on Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for their health insurance. Children and youth, the disabled, and the elderly represent a majority of all people covered by Medicaid. 

Congresswoman Matsui was a leader in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid to millions of low-income Americans. She also led bipartisan efforts in 2015 to successfully extend funding for the CHIP, which provides affordable, accessible health insurance to children. She has also worked to expand access to mental health and substance use treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries by leading legislation to create a community-based behavioral health center program. 

Comprehensive Mental Health Reform

Enacting comprehensive mental and behavioral health reform is very personal to the Congresswoman, and one of her biggest priorities. She has led several legislative efforts related to mental health reform throughout her time in Congress, with the goal of expanding access to services and supports, reducing disparities, improving crisis response, and bringing mental health services to integrated care settings. 

In 2014, Congresswoman Matsui’s landmark Excellence in Mental Health Act was passed into law. The legislation supports Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, a Medicaid provider type, that has been proven to better serve patients by integrating physical, mental, and substance abuse treatment. The Congresswoman has also advocated for legislation which would expand Mental Health First Aid training in communities to help emergency services personnel, police officers, educators, and the public identify, understand, and respond to mental health issues and disorders.

In 2020, Congresswoman Matsui successfully championed an extension and expansion of the Excellence in Mental Health demonstration project, increasing Medicaid and grant funding opportunities to more states, including California. This financing has proved critical to increasing Americans’ access to high-quality, evidenced-based, and community-driven mental health care and strengthening our response to the substance use disorders and mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Congresswoman has also worked on bipartisan efforts to provide new resources to help reverse the tragic rise of suicide across the nation through legislation such as the Suicide Prevention Act. 

Telehealth

Congresswoman Matsui believes in harnessing the power of technology to improve our health care system. She has worked on policies to ensure that health care providers utilize electronic health records and that those systems are “interoperable” so that providers can appropriately share electronic information. As a leading Member of the House Telehealth Caucus, she has strongly advocated to expand access to telehealth in the Medicare program, understanding that virtual care is convenient to patients, saves time and money, and improves quality of care. She is a leader of the bipartisan CONNECT for Health Act and the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act, which will permanently eliminate restrictions on the use of telehealth in Medicare.

The Congresswoman has combined her work on mental health and telehealth by introducing several bills that leverage the promises of audio and video services to expand access to telemental health services for Medicare beneficiaries. In 2020, Congresswoman Matsui successfully led the House-passage of her Telemental Health Expansion Act, legislation that permanently waives Medicare’s geographic restrictions on telehealth for mental health services and allows beneficiaries to receive telemental health care at home. These telemental health provisions were included and enacted into law with the FY2021 spending package. She also continues to advocate for the Improving Access to Remote Behavioral Health Treatment Act, which aims to increase access to medication-assisted treatment at community behavioral health clinics in underserved areas through the use of telemedicine under the Ryan Haight Act.

Drug Pricing

Congresswoman Matsui fights to make prescription drugs more affordable for American families. She was a leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. The landmark legislation empowers the federal government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and caps Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs. The House-passed legislation stops drug companies from ripping off Americans while charging other countries less for the same drugs by limiting the maximum price for any negotiated drug and making the lower drug prices negotiated by Medicare available to Americans with private insurance.

Medical Research, Food and Drug Safety

Congresswoman Matsui has been a consistent advocate for the expansion of medical research. She supports robust funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducts much of the basic science that leads to treatments and cures. The Congresswoman has a particular interest in encouraging research for rare diseases, as lesser known conditions are often overlooked and under-researched. She has led annual appropriations requests to increase research funding and championed legislation for blood cancer, bone marrow failure, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Primary (PID). 

Every five years, the Congresswoman works to reauthorize the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which gives hope to thousands of Americans who suffer from life-threatening blood cancer or other bone marrow disorders by making possible life-saving transplants through the “Be a Match” National Registry. The Act was unanimously passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in late 2015. To support this work, the Congresswoman co-founded the Congressional Caucus to Cure Blood Cancers and Other Blood Disorders. In May 2021, the Timely Reauthorization of Necessary Stem-cell Programs Lends Access to Needed Therapies (TRANSPLANT) Act, was signed into law. This important bill renews the federal programs that ensure continued access to life-saving bone marrow and cord blood transplants for patients with blood cancer and other blood diseases.

Food Allergies 

Congresswoman Matsui championed the passage of the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education and Research (FASTER) Act, legislation requiring sesame to be labeled on packaged foods.In 2021, President Biden signed the FASTER Act (S.578/H.R. 1202) into law, making sesame the ninth food recognized as a “major allergen” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Congresswoman Matsui also Co-Chairs the Congressional Food Allergy Caucus, advocating for issues impacting the 32 million Americans who have a potentially life-threatening food allergy.  

Women’s Health Care

Congresswoman Matsui believes that a woman’s access to reproductive healthcare should not be politicized. She has stood with women in Sacramento and across the country to fight for the preservation of federal funding for Planned Parenthood, so all women can make healthcare choices that are right for them. She has also supported initiatives to repeal the domestic and global gag rule.

Accomplishments

• Authored the landmark Excellence in Mental Health Act, which was passed into law. The legislation supports community behavioral health clinics that will better serve patients by integrating physical, mental, and substance abuse treatment.
• Advocated to increase access to telehealth through leadership on the House Telehealth Caucus. 
• Passed H.R. 2820 into law, reauthorizing the life-saving National Marrow Donor Program and National Cord Blood Inventory, including the Be the Match registry for patients to match to bone marrow donors. Co-Founded the Caucus to Cure Blood Cancers and Other Blood Disorders.
• Passed H.R. 5668, the MODERN Labeling Act of 2020, out of the House of Representatives unanimously in November 2020. H.R. 5668, a bipartisan bill to ensure that providers, patients and their caregivers have the most up-to-date information about the prescription drugs they use, was included in the FY2021 government funding package and enacted into law. 
• Introduced H.R. 7839, the Continuing Access to In-Home IVIG Act, legislation that extends and expands access to Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment administered in the home for Medicare patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDD). H.R. 7839 was included in the FY 2021 government funding package and enacted into law. 
• Passed H.R. 5201 Telemental Health Expansion Act, out of the Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously in July 2020. Provisions of this legislation were included in the FY2021 government funding package and enacted into law. 
• Championed efforts to extend funding for the ten-state Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) demonstration program through September 30, 2023 and provide $600 million for the CCBHC Expansion Grant program. 
• Passed H.R. 2955, the Suicide Prevention Act, out of the House of Representatives unanimously in May 2021.  
• Led efforts to preserve safety net hospitals’ eligibility for the 340B Drug Pricing Program amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Worked through the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee to end surprise medical bills, provide long-term extensions of expiring public health programs including Community Health Centers and the National Health Service Corps, make prescription drugs more affordable, stop the youth tobacco epidemic and enhance the Affordable Care Act. 

Legislation

• H.R. 863 - DXM Abuse Prevention Act of 2019
• H.R. 1767 - Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Expansion Act
• H.R. 2117 - FASTER Act of 2020
• H.R. 3447 - Public Health Funding Restoration Act
• H.R. 4131 - Improving Access to Remote Behavioral Health Treatment Act of 2019
• H.R. 5201 - Telemental Health Expansion Act of 2020
• H.R. 5668 -  MODERN Labeling Act of 2020
• H.R. 7839 – Continuing Access to In-Home IVIG Act
• H.R. 941 – TRANSPLANT Act of 2021
• H.R. 1202 - The FASTER Act of 2021
• H.R. 1583 - Public Health Funding Prevents Pandemics Act
• H.R. 3203 - To provide for certain temporary waivers with respect to the 340B drug discount program due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 4058 - Telemental Health Care Access Act of 2021
• H.R. 4323 - Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act of 2021
• H.R. 4472 - BENEFIT Act of 2021
• H.R. 6160 - Access to Rare Indication Act of 2021