Senate President Sweeney, Assemblyman Burzichelli and Assemblywoman Riley are committed to protecting the welfare of residents across New Jersey and have introduced numerous bills in the Legislature to provide access to health care and awareness of health related issues.
- Senator Sweeney sponsored a bill that would enhance the scope and quality of the emergency medical services system in New Jersey, based on recommendations in a 2007 report detailing major concerns about the future of the current EMS system throughout the state.
- Senator Sweeney and Assemblyman Burzichelli are sponsoring an anti-discrimination bill that would prevent New Jersey hospitals from declining to do an organ transplant on a patient because he/she has a developmental disability. It was inspired by a recent incident in Pennsylvania where a family was allegedly told their 3-year-old child would not be eligible because she has a mental disability.
- Assemblywoman Riley sponsored a measure that will help consumers determine which services are covered under their health insurance policies by requiring health insurance carriers that provide authorization for medically necessary procedures to also indicate if the procedure is a covered benefit.
- Assemblywoman Riley sponsored legislation, signed into law in 2011, making restorations to the income eligibility levels for New Jersey’s AIDS Drug Distribution Program.
- In an effort to boost nutritional food access to food deserts — areas where fresh foods are practically unavailable – Assemblywoman Riley also sponsored a law signed in January 2012 requiring the state Department of Agriculture to establish a statewide mobile farmer’s market to improve access to fresh produce for residents who live in communities lacking supermarkets, grocery stores and farmer’s markets.
