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Stopping asthma deaths: It’s not only possible – it’s a goal long overdue.

For more than 20 years, American tax dollars have supported federal programs aimed at eliminating suffering and death due to asthma – programs mandated by Congress and run by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Ironically, our dollars have also been used to prevent patient access to the care these programs say are necessary.

We know what it takes to put patients and parents back to work and kids back to school and on the playground where they belong – without asthma symptoms or soaring healthcare costs. It takes patient access to specialty care, personalized written asthma action plans, strategic use of medications and inhalation devices, ongoing monitoring and environmental management, as outlined in the NIH EPR-3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma.

Instead, shortsighted federal and private health insurance policies focus on limiting medication choices to only the least expensive drugs or requiring patients to fail (suffer) one, two or three therapies before allowing proven treatments they needed all along.

At our 12th annual Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill on May 6, 2009, Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics called on Congress to take the following steps to stop asthma deaths, reduce suffering and eliminate wasteful spending now:

• Ensure all asthma patients have access to Guidelines-level care.
• Ensure federal funds favor state programs/services that follow Guidelines recommendations for individualized asthma treatment plans and specialty care.
• Refuse to support healthcare reform legislation that results in patient barriers to Guidelines-level care, such as restrictive formularies, reimbursement issues and access to specialty care and diagnostic tests.
• Ensure graduate medical education and specialty training programs continue to equip specialists to provide Guidelines-level care.
• Establish a collaborative effort among federal health agencies to insure all patients receive the benefits of federally funded programs such as NAEPP Guidelines, NIAID research, EPA Indoor Air Quality initiatives and CDC surveillance programs.

This practical, evidence-based, patient-centered and disease-specific plan is a model for successful healthcare reform. It is based on the belief that all children and adults with asthma want to be well and would rather overcome breathing difficulties than struggle with revolving-door emergency department visits, hospitalizations and heroic life-saving measures.

Here’s the bottom line:
You can wait and see what happens to you after healthcare reform decisions are made OR you can make healthcare reform work for you. Get involved today.

Healthcare Reform – Take action now! Contact: sfwalker-at-aanma.org

Asthma Awareness Day Capitol Hill 2009 Sponsors: