PI Action alerts & updates ... 2006

Sign-on Letter Organized by APHA Calls for $7.5 Billion
in Health Care Spending in FY 07 Appropriations

December 1, 2006

Senator XX:
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator XX:

The undersigned members of the Friends of the Health Resources and Services Administration Coalition (Friends of HRSA), urge you to provide at least $7.5 billion for the vital programs and services funded through HRSA when Congress returns in early December to finalize its work on the FY07 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. This request reflects the support HRSA will need to fulfill its core missions for fiscal year 2007 and beyond. We strongly believe that the activities and programs supported by HRSA are essential to protect the health of the American people.

The Friends of HRSA is a non-profit alliance of more than 125 national organizations—collectively representing millions of public health and health care professionals, academics and consumers—that works in a non-partisan fashion to advance the health of the American people. The coalition’s principal goal is to assure that HRSA’s broad health programs have continued support, in order to reach the populations presently underserved by the nation’s patchwork of health care programs. These programs include efforts to ensure access to basic primary health services for all Americans, and especially for those who live in rural and medically underserved areas. HRSA programs provide optimal health care for patients with HIV/AIDS and for women who need maternal and family planning services. In addition, HRSA is responsible for assuring that there are an adequate number of properly trained health care personnel to provide needed services. Our member organizations strongly support programs that assure Americans’ access to health services, and the elimination of disparities in health.

Listed below are some of the major health care initiatives provided by HRSA. These programs are crucial to the health of millions of Americans—during a time when state and local health departments are already severely understaffed and being asked to do more, funding should be added, not excluded, to protect the lives of Americans.

• Health Professions: Educational training for physicians, dental personnel, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, public health personnel, and operation of the National Health Service Corps.
• Rural Health programs include Rural Health Service Outreach Grants and Rural Health Research.
• Rural and Community Access to Emergency Devices Program provides grants to states to train lay rescuers and first responders to use AEDs and purchase and place these devices in public areas where cardiac arrests are likely to occur.
• Maternal and Child Health: The Maternal and Child Health Block grant programs include Emergency Medical Services for Children, and Healthy Start; key examples of cost-effective services for low-income working families.
• HIV/AIDS: The Ryan White CARE Act programs represent the federal government’s most significant HIV-specific response to medical and support services. Ryan White provisions include: Emergency Relief, Comprehensive Care, Early Intervention, Pediatric Demonstration Grants, the AIDS Education and Training Centers, and HIV/AIDS Dental Reimbursement Program.
• Family Planning: Title X programs provide reproductive health care and other preventive health services that improve maternal and child health outcomes, lower the incidence of unwanted pregnancies and reduce the rate of abortions.
• Health Centers: The nation's Community, Migrant, Homeless and Public Housing Health Centers provide high-quality, affordable primary and preventive health care services to nearly 16 million Americans living in medically underserved areas. Increased funding is needed to continue health center expansion efforts and to strengthen existing centers in the face of rising health care costs and rising numbers of uninsured.

The organizations involved in the Friends of HRSA coalition believe that continued underfunding of these programs undermines the progress we have made to date and will have future consequences that will leave us unprepared for a terror attack, infectious disease outbreak, or other public health emergency. Accordingly, we are grateful for your support in the past and urge you to support a funding level of $7.5 million for HRSA in FY 2007.

Sincerely,

AIDS Foundation of Chicago
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Nursing
American Academy of Physician Assistants
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Association of American Medical Colleges
American Association of Occupational Health Nurses
American College of Nurse Practitioners
American Dental Education Association
American Dental Hygienists' Association
American Dietetic Association
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
American Heart Association
American Podiatric Medical Association
American Public Health Association
Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions
Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Coalition for Health Funding and the Coalition for American Trauma Care
Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S. Public Health Service
Emergency Nurses Association
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Association of Medical Minority Educators
National Episcopal AIDS Coalition
National League for Nursing
Oncology Nursing Society
Project Inform
Society for Public Health Education