Joseph Vitale

TRENTON – Senator Joseph F. Vitale and Assemblyman Robert Morgan, MD, announced today that they will make it a priority to reform New Jersey’s FamilyCare health insurance system in 2005, to increase participation and provide expanded coverage to New Jersey’s uninsured.

“New Jersey’s FamilyCare program is a boon to those who would otherwise be without hope, but frankly, it doesn’t go far enough,” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex, Chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. “Despite our best efforts under the current system, there are still more than 264,000 children in this State who remain uninsured. We need to dramatically change our current system of identifying and enrolling children, to live up to our commitment of providing health insurance to those in need.”

TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senators Joseph F. Vitale which would appropriate $5 million for HIV/AIDS treatment funding and rapid response testing was approved today by the Senate by a vote of 36-1.

“HIV/AIDS is cutting a swath through New Jersey’s population, and spreading faster than we are able to contain the disease,” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex, the Chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “The State has an obligation to help those who are infected stave off the disease for as long as possible, and to identify the disease early to slow the spread before it reaches catastrophic proportions. If we turn our backs on those suffering from HIV/AIDS now, we may regret that decision in the future.”

TRENTON -A measure sponsored by Senator Joseph F. Vitale that would require greater public reporting of patient care and staffing levels at New Jersey’s hospitals and nursing homes has been approved by the Senate.

“Statistics have shown that the nurse to patient ratio is reflected in the quality of care patients receive,” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex, who also chairs the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens committee. “

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Joseph F. Vitale which would give adoptees and certain others access to the adoptee’s original birth certificates and other related family information was approved by the Senate today by a vote of 23-14.

“So much of one’s identity is defined by answering one key question — where did I come from?” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex, the Chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. “Family history is a living tapestry that many of us take for granted, but for adoptees and their descendants, there’s a gap there that, even though they may have been brought up by the best family in the world, cannot be filled. With this bill, we’re giving adoptees the right to know where they came from, and opening the door of history to those that thought it permanently sealed.”