Beginning in 2002, Murtha, due to the Technology Literacy Initiative, has been able to give over 1,500 computers to students in the 26 school districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The overall idea of this program is to enhance educational competitiveness of the emerging workforce. It also is to increase the teachers' abilities to deliver technology literacy skills throughout these new teaching methods.
Murtha is a strong supporter of bringing educators together with economic-development organizations to support the workforce development initiatives. These initiatives include making sure that graduates have the skills needed for employers needs, as well as to educate students about job opportunities available in the area where they've been attracted and grown. This helps to diversify the economy.
Murtha supports cancer research. With his leadership role in the U.S. House Defense Appropriations Committee, he has headed the effort to establish a cancer research program within the Department of Defense. This was second only to the National Cancer Institute as a source of funding for Breast Cancer research. Murtha also supports research initiatives in women's health, osteoporosis, neurofibromatosis, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, tuberous sclerosis, and chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Murtha has led a fight in Congress to help get funding for the promotion of the necessity for examinations that detect breast cancer, as well as advance research into the cause and treatment of breast cancer. He has obtained the attention and funding to create a world-class breast health facility as Windber Medical Center. This center bares his wife's name, “The Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center.” This facility is patient-friendly and offers a huge list of services. Some of the services include digital mammography, genetic counseling and educational programs. Murtha has forged a partnership between Western Pennsylvania hospitals and world-renowned institution to help with the initiated that has led to research that could revolutionize the detection and treatment of Brest cancer. This will help to advance the efforts to eradicate the disease. Winderber Research Institute is closely involved with this initiative.
Murtha convinced many resistant administrators at Medicare to pay for flu shots. He helped to expand the Navy's bone marrow registry into the National Bone Marrow registry, which has increased the chances for people to find a compatible donor faster. He fought to help maintain adequate funding for Medicare and Medicaid. He recognizes that these programs are essential for the care of millions of Americans, but he also realizes that the financial ability of hospitals is inadequate in their reimbursements. He has supported numerous home-health initiatives that are designed to help keep people in their familiar surroundings, as well as to avoid the high cost of nursing homes.
Murtha has co-authored child hospice legislation to help establish a national program that helps children facing life-threatening illnesses. The legislation provides a grant to children's hospitals, hospices, and home health agencies that will help to train and education those who care for the children on how to provide the end-of-life care. This also helps National Institutes of Health to conduct research in pain and symptom management for children. The other part of the bill created Medicare, as well as other private market programs to allow for the integration for curative and palliative care, which eases the burden of doctors and parent to stop making the end-of-life decisions for children.
Murtha voted against the prescription drug plan in 2004 because he felt that it would not benefit the senior citizens and in fact, actually hurt them. It is true that Murtha's vote against this actually hurt the senior citizens. They have fallen into a “donut hole” because if they exceed $2,250 in cost for the year then it is beyond the coverage. This makes all coverage actually stop until they have received $5,100 in drug costs.
In the middle of September, there was an announcement from a Congressional report. It stated that up to 7 million seniors who are on the new Part D prescription drug coverage program, as well as 6 million disabled Medicare Advantage plan recipients could lose their coverage for their prescription drugs. The seniors could have chosen a more expensive plan to avoid this, but it would have been, on average, $40 more for them every month. This is a gamble that most seniors can not afford. This made it a forced choice because of the lower-priced plans, and they would have to hope that they wouldn't hit the $2,250 ceiling during the year they were allotted. This is a bad way to provide health care benefits for millions of elderly people who live on a fixed income.
Murtha, therefore, wrote an alternative plan which he voted for three years ago. In that plan, it did not contain the “donut hole.” This plan would have let the government negotiate with the different drug companies for different price discounts. This would have done a lot to keep price costs down in the program allowing more money to go into the beneficiaries of the program. This version was not the choice people voted for making those who benefited from the plan the drug companies instead of our Senior Citizens benefiting.
