Association Fighting for Changing Legislation
The bill would create a category for pulmonary rehab under the Medicare statute however; due to a quirk in the law not all beneficiaries have access to this proven therapy.
The Pickering/Lewis bill would enable all beneficiaries to have access to this kind of treatment.
The agency is also urging others to help fund lung cancer research. The disease is the leading cancer killer in men and women.
“Given the magnitude of the lung cancer and the enormity of the death toll, the American Lung Association strongly recommends that the National Institute of Health and other federal research programs commit additional resources to lung cancer research programs,” say staff.
The Association is asking Congress to increase the National Cancer Institute’s budget to $5.3 billion.
In addition, the Association is asking for help to increase funding for Veterans Administration medical care.
“We are concerned that the President’s budget proposes cutting medical research by $13 million, a 3.2 percent cut,” said an Association rep. “The nation has a commitment to all veterans; nearly half of our veterans are over the age 65.”
According to the Association, each year there are about two million people from around the world that die from Tuberculosis, a preventable, curable disease.
The Administration’s budget for fiscal year 2007 includes a $1 million cut in funding for TB control programs. Tuberculosis is an airborne infection caused by a bacterium.
Monroe County in New York received an “F” for its continuing problems with ozone pollution in the annual State of the Air report by the American Lung Association released in April.
“The worst ozone problem in the state is in western New York,” said Peter Iwanowicz, director of environmental health for the association’s New York chapter. “Even though things haven’t gotten appreciably worse, they haven’t gotten better, either.”
According to a recent article while industrial pollution on the whole has declined in recent years, ozone problems linger.
