Healthcare
“My primary goal in the Senate will continue to be to promote a national passion for life and to provide adequate funding to conquer cancer and other medical maladies.” (Never Give In, 247)
Throughout the 30 years of his tenure in the Senate, one of Arlen Specter’s primary focuses was on the state of healthcare in America and the funding of medical research. A good deal of his interest in the topic was because of a history of his own health scares. An erroneous diagnosis of ALS in 1979, along with a 1993 prognosis that he had no more than six weeks to live after discovering a brain tumor that turned out to be benign, left the Senator both conscious of his own health and of the importance of healthcare and funding for researchers to study and treat disease.
Specter proved himself as an advocate for healthcare from the beginning of his time in office, joining the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee as one of his very first assignments. As in many other areas, some of his stances on healthcare issues were at odds with the predominant Republican Party platform. He remained in favor of abortion rights as part of his advocacy for funding women’s health initiatives, despite expressing his personal opposition to the procedure. In addition, he became a vocal advocate for federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, an intensely partisan issue, going so far as to publicly oppose President George W. Bush and lead the charge to ensure the legality of related research.
The Senator’s views on government-sponsored health insurance plans evolved over the course of his career. He was adamantly opposed to the Health Security Act proposed by President Clinton in 1993, finding it too convoluted and bureaucratic to effectively make a positive difference. In response to Clinton’s plan, Specter and his assistants created a chart illustrating the setup of 105 proposed new government agencies, a visual representation of what he and other conservatives saw as an extreme example of government bloat. Throughout the 1990s, he remained interested in various healthcare reform proposals that passed through the Senate.
In 2005, Specter was reminded firsthand of the importance of healthcare and medical research. After a contentious re-election campaign in 2004, he found himself fatigued and fevered. The day after his 75th birthday, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Despite being newly elected the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Specter underwent chemotherapy while still remaining active in his professional duties. In the wake of his treatment and recovery, Specter stated in his 2008 memoir Never Give In that “I knew that good health was a person’s most important possession,” which encouraged him to lobby for increased medical research funding. (247) In 2006, he partnered with Iowan Democratic Senator Tom Harkin to forward a bill that would nearly double financial allocations to the NIH, including for stem-cell research, only to have it vetoed by President Bush.
It would be another battle over healthcare issues that would define the final years of Specter’s time in the Senate. For a multitude of reasons, including increased political polarization, the Senator chose to cross the aisle permanently and became a member of the Democratic Party. In the wake of the 2008 elections, a new Democratic majority in Congress, along with President Obama, worked to pass what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act. Specter attended a number of town hall meetings across Pennsylvania over the summer of 2009, many of which became heated.
Specter chose to support the Act, providing the key 60th vote of approval in a Senate that split exactly upon party lines. About his decision, Specter asserted that: “People are… entitled to affordable health care. And to Medicaid and Medicare… Inherent in the Constitution is the notion that a civilized society must provide a social safety net.” Though the vote may have played a part in Specter’s 2010 election loss, his position reflects the development of his ideals over three decades of efforts to improve healthcare in the United States.
Specter visits the NICU at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh.
A draft and final version of the chart made in Specter’s office to demonstrate the bureaucratic complexities of President Clinton’s proposed healthcare plan.
Specter was particularly interested in healthcare issues that plagued veterans. In 1998, as part of his capacity serving on the Veterans Affairs Committee, Specter investigated Gulf War syndrome and criticized both the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs for not treating the issue seriously.
Specter’s advocacy for the use of embryonic stem-cells in medical research would fall victim to increasing partisanship, but a 2001 letter to President Bush reveals him as a leader for like-minded Republicans.
Specter with actor Christopher Reeve at a fundraising event. As a vocal proponent of the importance of medical research, the Senator often partnered with other visible public figures to raise both awareness and funding for a variety of issues.
Constituents on both side of the aisle were incredibly outspoken about the Affordable Care Act during its development in 2009. Specter was careful to listen to Pennsylvanians who both did and didn’t agree with him, offering reasoned justifications for his stance.
