|
The Update is taking a Holiday break. There will be no Update on December
29, 2006. Merry Holidays and Happy New Year from all of us at VOR!
**************************************************************************
GIVE THE GIFT OF VOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!!!
A donation in someone's honor makes a perfect Holiday gift, or give the
gift of VOR membership. Use the form at the end of this weekly update or
contact Tony Padgett, VOR's Director of Resource Development at
anthonypadgett@sbcglobal.net, or 847-253-6020 with any questions. Thank you
for your support and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
***************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------
VOR Weekly E-Mail Update
December 22, 2006
-------------------------------------------
================================================================
SPREADING HOLIDAY CHEER AND HELPING VOR AT THE SAME TIME
1. Using your e-mail lists to help VOR grow
2. A sample letter for your use
3. A holiday message for Mary McTernan, VOR's President
4. Membership and Contribution Form
ALSO IN THIS UPDATE:
FOCUS ON ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AND RELATED SERVICES
1. TEXAS lawmaker works out compromise on autism bill
2. Congress Partially Fills CHIP Shortfall
3. Poll Examines Public's Health Care Priorities for the New Congress and
2008 Presidential Candidates
============================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
SPREADING HOLIDAY CHEER AND HELPING VOR AT THE SAME TIME
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
1. Using your e-mail lists to help VOR grow
David Swain, VOR Board Member and Officer, and Jane Anthony, Chair of VOR's
Major Gifts Committee, asked me to forward to each of you a letter that
Jane has sent her e-mail list in Virginia asking for membership and
contribution support to VOR.
As we encourage you to do, many of you forward VOR's Weekly E-Mail Update
and Action Alerts to your own advocacy e-mail lists - recipients who are
mostly (if not all) non-VOR members. This holiday season provides a perfect
excuse to help encourage some on your list to support VOR with a membership
contribution.
Jane's letter, along with VOR's Holiday Message, and a membership form
follow. Each is ready to share with your own lists without edits.
Thanks in advance for your consideration. We appreciate your help in this
way.
Happy Holidays!
Tamie Hopp
---------------------------------------------
2. A sample letter for your use
---------------------------------------------
Dear Friends and Families:
At this time of the year VOR reaches out with a request for support from
it's members. All of you who are on my e-mail list receive weekly updates
from VOR through me, but as yet are NOT supporting members.
What better time of the year to show your commitment and desire to make the
world better for "our children" than to join VOR and generously support the
organization that is there for all of us.
I ask you to read the letter below from VOR's President Mary McTernan and
make 2006 the year you support VOR with your membership and if you can a
generous check.
Be sure to include your e-mail address when you join so you can get the
updates directly from VOR, and then let me know you have joined so you
don't receive duplicate copies. I will still send you information that is
pertinent to the our state and local activities.
Thank you in advance,
Jane Anthony
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. A holiday message for Mary McTernan, VOR's President
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the VOR Board of Directors,
Staff and Volunteers
2006 will be a year we remember with pride. As the year draws to a close,
it is time to give thanks to the thousands of people who responded to their
action alerts from VOR, and helped out with their generous gifts.
These action alerts resulted in an unprecedented number of e-mails, phone
calls and letters to Congress. A special thanks to all of you who helped
make that happen. Many of you selflessly responded as volunteers when we
sought to renew a VOR presence in Washington, D.C. Those visits enhanced a
positive VOR image and helped to make the needs of our family members known
to the Congress and the Administration.
Social Security Reform was set aside prior to the election; but already we
see a resurgence of activity in preparation for enactment of legislation
before Inauguration Day. Medicaid also faces continued funding and program
threats, and families continue to struggle to preserve choice in
legislatures and court rooms.
We must be, and will be, prepared to go forward with greater energy toward
our goal of responsible, reality-based planning for the wide spectrum of
people with mental retardation with very specialized needs. VOR will remain
vigilant in the Congress and the Courts on your behalf in 2007 and beyond.
When you consider your charitable contributions during this holiday season
and renewing your support to VOR, please be as generous as you are able.
All that we do on behalf of the neediest, most fragile and most disabled
members of our society, including your family members and friends, is
dependent on this kind of generous support.
Thank you again for all that you do for VOR and the people we serve. Happy
Holidays to you and your loved ones.
With gratitude,
Mary E. McTernan, Ph.D.
President
--------------------------------------------------------
4. Membership and Contribution Form
--------------------------------------------------------
VOR's efforts year round make all the seasons happier for people with
mental retardation! Here is my donation to keep up the good work. Thank
you for your support and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
TO JOIN OR CONTRIBUTE: $25 per individual, $150 per family organization, or
$200 per provider/professional organization. Extra donations are welcome!
You may pay by credit card or check.
Mail the completed form with payment to:
Voice of the Retarded
5005 Newport Drive, Suite 108
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
phone 847-253-6020
847-253-6054 fax (for referrals or credit card payments)
vor@compuserve.com (for referrals or credit card payments)
____________________________________________
Name
_____________________________________________
Address (if paying by credit card, use billing address). All forms must
include complete address including zip code)
_____________________________________________
City St Zip
_____________________________________________
Phone Fax
_____________________________________________
E-Mail
_________________________________________________
Family/Professional Organization Affiliation (if applicable)
VOR now accepts Master Card and Visa. If paying by credit card, please
provide the following information:
Amount to charge to card:
___$1,000 ___$500 ___$250 ___$150 ___$50 ___$25 $_____ Other amount
_____ Master Card
_____ Visa
Card Number: ___________________________________
Expiration Date: __________________________________
Cardholder's Signature: ___________________________
============================================================
FOCUS ON ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AND RELATED SERVICES
============================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. TEXAS lawmaker works out compromise on autism bill
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Maria Recio
McClatchy Newspapers
December 5, 2006
WASHINGTON - After a daily drumbeat of negative publicity from radio
personality Don Imus that lasted for weeks, a Texas congressman has worked
out a compromise on a $945 million bill to fight autism.
The Combating Autism Act goes to the House of Representatives Wednesday for
a vote under streamlined procedures. Supporters anticipate that the bill,
which has been revised slightly from a Senate-passed version, will pass by
the two-thirds vote margin required and then be sent back to the Senate for
a vote before Congress adjourns on Friday.
The five-year bill, introduced by departing Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.,
bumps up research for autism, a spectrum of developmental disorders that
impair social interaction, and calls for coordinated research and early
intervention programs. Autism, which appears by age 3, occurs in one of 166
births.
After a battle over the legislation between autism activist organizations
and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas,
eleven major groups said in a statement Tuesday that they supported the
compromise.
"The amended version of the Combating Autism Act, on which the House will
vote, authorizes nearly $1 billion for autism research, including essential
research on environmental factors, treatments, early identification and
services," said the 11 groups. "It amounts to a declaration of war by the
Congress of the United States on autism."
Kristi Hammer of Plano, Texas, who has a 4 1/2-year-old son who's autistic,
said of the legislation: "It means so many things. It's a first in a huge
step with the government acknowledging autism is a national emergency.
There's a trickle-down effect in research with early intervention and
screening.
"Hopefully," said Hammer, "this bill will someday result in a cure for my
son."
Barton was resistant to moving a "disease-specific" bill while he was
working on legislation that affects the National Institutes of Health. The
NIH bill passed the House in September, but Barton still had problems with
the autism bill's focus on the NIH and the stipulation that researchers
study environmental factors that autism activists maintain trigger the
disease.
The compromise allocates funding to NIH but directs the Atlanta-based
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to set up regional centers of
excellence for epidemiological research. The bill includes environmental
factors in the list of research areas to be studied, but drops the
Senate-passed version's provision for $45 million in research on
environmental factors.
House Energy and Commerce Committee spokesman Kevin Schweers said the
changes in the House bill are "consistent with Chairman Barton's view that
scientists should determine research priorities, not politicians."
The changes were a bitter pill for some of the activists, who said in their
statement that "Chairman Barton is fully aware that the autism community
would have preferred House action on the Senate-passed version of this
bill."
But others embraced the compromise.
"We welcome this bill," said Marguerite Colston, director of communications
for the Autism Society of America. "It means the federal government is
taking a leadership role in diagnostics, causes and cures for autism."
Barton staffers don't think Imus, whose New York-based radio program, "Imus
in the Morning," is seen nationally on MSNBC and heard across the country,
helped the cause by calling the Texan "another congressional dirtbag" and
worse. But autism activists believe that without the pressure, nothing
would have happened with the bill.
"Imus," said Hammer, "is our hero."
-----------------------------------------------------------
2. Congress Partially Fills CHIP Shortfall
-----------------------------------------------------------
From Families USA:
Over the December 9th weekend, the 109th Congress wrapped up its work by
taking steps to partially fill next year's State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) shortfall. Although Congress was unable to fill
the SCIHP hole as completely as we might wish, the agreement worked out and
included in the tax bill does
make good progress.
The bill would redistribute SCHIP money from FY 2004 (slated to expire) and
certain funds from FY 2005 to states that will have shortfalls next year.
Fourteen states are expected to have shortfalls next year. And although the
redistributed money will not fully meet the shortfall, none of the states
will experience shortfalls before May of next year. (This means Congress
could take action early next year to do more to plug the shortfall hole.)
The bill also puts certain limitations on the redistributed money.
Shortfall states that had expanded their program beyond children and
pregnant women would qualify only for the Medicaid match - not the full
SCHIP match - with their new funds.
Other items included in the tax bill:
On its way out the door, Congress slipped some technical fixes to last
year's Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) in the final bill. We'll send around
another e-mail with more detail. Congress also expanded Health Savings
Accounts (HSAs) by raising the contribution amount. (See CBPP paper:
http://www.cbpp.org/9-26-06health2.htm)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Poll Examines Public's Health Care Priorities for the New Congress and
2008 Presidential Candidates
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kaiser Family Foundation
December 05, 2006
Summary: A new poll finds broad support among Democrats, Independents, and
Republicans for drug price negotiation, reimportation, and prioritizing
children for coverage of the uninsured. Views on stem cells more mixed.
Public sees health care prices as unreasonable and wants government to take
steps to lower them. Iraq by far remains the public's top priority for the
new Congress and Presidential campaign, with the economy and health care
next but well behind.
A new national survey finds widespread support across the political
spectrum for a number of health initiatives likely to be taken up by the
new Congress, as well as a widely-held view that government should do more
to address the high cost of health care. At the same time, the war in Iraq
continues to play a dominant role among the public's priorities, with
economic and health concerns following distantly.
The poll, conducted November 9-19 by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the
Harvard School of Public Health, included a nationally representative
sample of 1,867 adults. The survey looks at the public's priorities and
views on health issues as a new Democratic majority takes the leadership of
Congress and as the 2008 presidential campaign begins to take shape. It
focuses, in particular, on differences and similarities among Democrats,
Republicans, and those who identify themselves as Independents or something
else.
The Congressional Agenda and the Public's Priorities
While there is debate in Washington about whether and how to do it,
substantial majorities of Democrats (92%), Independents (85%), and
Republicans (74%) support allowing the government to negotiate drug prices
under Medicare (85% overall, including 65% strongly and 20% somewhat
favoring it). There is also widespread support for permitting Americans to
buy lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada (79%, including 55%
strongly and 24% somewhat). Eight in 10 people believe drug price
negotiation will make medications more affordable, while 31% believe it
will result in less research and development by U.S. drug companies.
"Many of the health policy proposals currently on the congressional agenda
are broadly popular with the public, from drug price negotiation to
reimportation to children's health insurance," said Drew Altman, president
and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Health care is well positioned
to emerge as a top national issue in 2008 and beyond, but only if the
situation in Iraq stabilizes and presidential candidates spark a national
discussion about health reform."
More than half of Americans support broader federal funding for stem cell
research, though with sharp partisan divisions: 67% of Democrats and 61%
of Independents favor it, compared to 37% of Republicans. The public in
general favors greater government support for medical research. When asked
to pick a public health priority, 67% chose increased spending to develop
treatment and cures for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and
diabetes, compared to 14% who pointed to prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS and 13% who said better preparation for public health threats like
avian flu.
Overall, Iraq by far tops the list of policy priorities for the public,
with 46% naming it as one of the two issues they would most like the
president and Congress to act on next year. Health care and the economy
came next but followed far back at 15% each.
When asked to pick their top health care priority, most people point either
to expanding coverage for the uninsured (35%) or reducing health care costs
(30%). Fewer (18%) choose improving the Medicare drug benefit. And, while
policymakers struggle with the budget deficit, few people (6%) rank
reducing spending on government health programs as their top priority. But
partisan differences emerge on priorities, with Democrats placing a much
higher priority on expanding coverage, Republicans emphasizing reducing
costs, and Independents split.
The public is most likely to prioritize coverage for children over other
groups of the uninsured if Congress judges that guaranteed health insurance
for everyone is not affordable, an issue likely to arise with
reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program on the
horizon.
Looking Ahead: The Broader Health Reform Debate and the Beginning of the
Presidential Campaign
What the public would like to hear from presidential candidates largely
mirrors the priorities for the new Congress, with the war in Iraq mostly
pushing aside other issues at this point. Among health care issues, the
public cites the twin issues of coverage and costs as top priorities, with
similar partisan splits as for the congressional agenda. Medicare's drug
benefit remains of lesser concern.
Democrats, in particular, say they are looking for more far-reaching
proposals from candidates - 73% say they would like to see a health
proposal from a candidate that makes a major effort to provide near
universal coverage even with a substantial increase in spending, compared
to 18% who would prefer a more limited plan and 7% who prefer a plan that
maintains the status quo. Far fewer, though still a majority (55%), of
Independents would like to see a major plan proposed, along with 37% of
Republicans.
"The public shows some appetite for the kind of broader health measures
that have largely been absent from the agenda for many years, but that
interest could wane in a full-fledged debate when critics mount opposition
campaigns or if people come to believe that a plan would threaten their own
medical arrangements," said Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director of
Public Opinion and Media Research for Kaiser.
The poll also finds a strong desire among the public for initiatives to
address health care costs.
With previous polls showing health care affordability topping the list of
personal worries for Americans, it is not surprising that substantial
majorities see health care prices as unreasonable compared with other goods
and services, including hospital charges (86%), brand name drugs (83%),
health insurance premiums (70%), nursing home charges (63%), and physician
fees (59%). But the public does discriminate - just 20% see the prices of
generic drugs as unreasonably high.
Perhaps more unexpected is that almost two-thirds (64%) of the public
believes government can do a lot to address the cost of health care, and
people across the political spectrum believe government should try to
address health care prices - 65% of Republicans, 74% of Independents, and
86% of Democrats, among the large majorities who say any health-related
prices are unreasonable.
"These findings suggest that we are likely to see more public pressure on
Congress to address the health care cost issue in the years ahead," said
Robert J. Blendon, professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis at the
Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government.
When faced with a choice between the government trying to solve the health
care cost problem by dealing directly with providers and insurers and
limiting what they can charge versus giving consumers tax incentives to buy
high-deductible coverage and encouraging them to shop for lower prices and
better quality, most people (59%) choose direct government action over the
more market-oriented solution (34%). That was true across the board for
Democrats (66%), Independents (58%), and Republicans (52%).
The full survey results, including question wording, are available at
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr120806pkg.cfm . A webcast of a briefing
discussing the results and the health priorities for Congress and the
Administration also will be available.
Methodology
The Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Survey, The
Public's Health Care Agenda for the New Congress and Presidential Campaign,
was designed and analyzed by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation
and Harvard School of Public Health. The Kaiser/Harvard survey research
team included Drew E. Altman, Ph.D., Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., and Claudia
Deane, M.A. from the Kaiser Family Foundation; and Professor Robert
Blendon, Sc.D., and John Benson, M.A. of the Harvard School of Public
Health.
Fieldwork was done by telephone November 9 to 19, 2006 among a nationally
representative sample of 1,867 respondents ages 18 and over - including
1,363 respondents who reported voting in the midterm election - by
ICR/International Communications Research. The survey included an
oversample of respondents ages 65 and over; a total of 718 respondents in
this age group were interviewed. Overall results have been weighted to
reflect the actual demographic distribution of the nation.
The margin of sampling error for results based on the full sample is plus
or minus 3 percentage points. For results based on smaller subsets of
respondents, the margin of sampling error is somewhat higher. Note that
sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error in this or
any other public opinion poll.
--END OF UPDATE --
|
