Each year WomenHeart staff, in consultation with our leadership, identify public policy issues that impact women with heart disease. These issues command our attention and direct the focus of our advocacy efforts. Some of those issues are reflected in proposed legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives. Each Congress, WomenHeart identifies legislation of the highest priority to our members.

 

WomenHeart encourages Congress to adequately fund research, treatment, prevention and education programs that address the devastating impact of heart disease on women. Our legislative priorities include:

H.R. 1032 /S. 422 The HEART for Women Act

Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) reintroduced the bill in the House, where it passed last Congress; Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reintroduced the Senate bill.  The HEART for Women Act will help ensure that heart disease and stroke are more widely recognized and more effectively treated in women and takes a multi-pronged approach by:

 

• Requiring  that healthcare data being reported to the federal government, such as clinical trial, drug and medical device approval data, be stratified by gender, race and ethnicity, and that the gender and race-specific information be available for clinicians, researchers, and the public.
• Requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary to conduct an education and awareness campaign for physicians and other healthcare professionals and to develop and distribute educational materials relating to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular diseases in women.
• Requiring the Secretary to prepare and submit to Congress an annual report of findings related to the quality of and access to care for women with heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases, including recommendations for eliminating disparities in, and improving the treatment of these  women.
• Authorizing the expansion to all 50 states of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded WISEWOMAN program, which provides screening for low-income, uninsured women at risk for heart disease and stroke.  

 

WomenHeart strongly supports this bill.  

 

H.R. 1558 Preexisting Condition Patient Protection Act of 2009

This bill, introduced by Representative Joseph Courtney (D-CT), prohibits preexisting condition exclusions in group health plans and health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 45% of Americans have at least one chronic condition.  Forty-four states currently allow insurance companies to deny coverage for, limit coverage for or charge increased premiums for a preexisting condition.  Eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions for all is a vital safeguard to ensuring that all Americans have access to health care when in need.

 

WomenHeart strongly supports this bill and any other efforts to make health insurance available and affordable for all.  

 

H. Con. Res. 48 Health Care Needs of Women

Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced this resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that national health care reform should ensure that the health care needs of women and of all individuals in the United States are met.

 

In particular, the resolution states that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men, but women are less likely than men to receive lifestyle counseling, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and cardiac rehabilitation and are more likely to die or have a second heart attack, demonstrating inequalities between women and men in access to health care. The resolution also acknowledges that while Hispanic and Native American women and children are 3 times as likely, and African-American women are nearly twice as likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic white women.

 

The resolution commits to passing, not later than 18 months after the adoption of this resolution by Congress, legislation that guarantees affordable health care for women and all individuals and establishes coverage that enables women to attain good health that they can maintain during their reproductive years and throughout their lives and eliminates health disparities in coverage, treatment, and outcomes on the basis of gender, culture, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, health status, and sexual orientation.

 

WomenHeart strongly supports this resolution.

 

FY 2010 Appropriations  

WomenHeart joins with the American Heart Association and other members of the NHLBI Constituency Group to recommend the following funding levels for the FY 2010 Appropriations bill:

 

• NIH — $32.439 billion or a 7% increase for NIH, the first step toward achieving the President's campaign pledge to double the NIH budget over the next 10 years.  NIH supported research helps prevent and cures disease, generates economic growth and creates jobs.  Stable and sustained funding will help secure a solid return on Congress' investment in NIH.  Unfortunately, the NIH invests only 4% of its budget on heart research and a mere 1% on stroke research—America's No. 1 and No. 3 killers, respectively. This level of funding is not commensurate with scientific opportunities, the number afflicted, and the economic toll exacted on our Nation.  Americans deserve better.
• NHLBI — $3.227 billion, or a $211 million increase, for NHLBI, which is comparable to the recommended percentage increase for NIH. This funding is needed to sustain current activities and invest in promising and critically needed scientific opportunities to aggressively advance the battle against heart disease and other forms of cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 and most costly killer in the U.S.
• CDC Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention — $74 million, or a $20 million increase, for CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. This will allow CDC to add the 9 states that receive no funding for the competitively awarded Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program, elevate up to 18 states to basic program implementation, and support the other funded states. It will sustain the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry, increase capacity for national, state and local heart disease and stroke surveillance, and provide more assistance for research and program evaluation.
• CDC WISEWOMAN — $37 million, or a $17 million increase, for WISEWOMAN to expand this competitively awarded state program. This program screens uninsured and under-insured low-income women ages 40 to 64 for heart disease and stroke risk and provides counseling, education, referral and follow-up to those with abnormal results. Since 2000, WISEWOMAN has screened more than 84,000 and has provided more than 210,000 lifestyle interventions. An estimated 94% of these women had at least one risk factor or pre-condition for heart disease, stroke or other cardiovascular disease.
• HRSA Rural and Community AED Program — $8.927 million to provide grants to 47 states to buy automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for locations where sudden cardiac deaths are likely to occur and trains lay rescuers and first responders to use them.     

 

These funds will make a major impact on improving prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in women.