U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has earned a reputation in the Senate as a fierce advocate for healthcare transformation and a thoughtful legislator capable of reaching across the aisle to achieve bipartisan solutions.
Senator Whitehouse is a champion for end-of-life care in the U.S. Senate, emphasizing Rhode Island as a leader in patient-centered care for those in the final weeks and months of their lives. He is known on Capitol Hill for his passion about end of life and his work to make healthcare better for all Rhode Islanders and Americans.
He has brought numerous high-ranking Administration officials to the state to highlight Rhode Island’s innovative approach to end-of-life care and has participated in multiple national summits promoting end-of-life care issues. He secured $20 million in federal funding to improve population health and advanced illness care in Rhode Island which allowed HopeHealth to establish a robust training course for physicians and other clinicians to become more comfortable and effective in their conversations with patients and families who are facing serious illness.
Senator Whitehouse also introduced the Removing Barriers to Person- and Family-Centered Care Act to make advanced illness care more patient-focused and is pushing federal agencies to provide flexibility in Rhode Island to continue the state’s leading-edge work.
Whitehouse has stood as a staunch defender of Social Security and Medicare and has made improving care and reducing costs in our healthcare system a hallmark of his career.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Whitehouse served as Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney and state attorney general before being elected to the Senate, where he is Chairman of the Budget Committee, and serves on the Finance Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee.