A note from AHA President- Dr. Clyde Yancy

Yesterday, one of many anticipated “AHA Chats” was convened to discuss topical issues in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke. Health Care Reform was the topic of the day. We were delighted that well over 300 AHA volunteers and advocates called in to participate. As highlighted by Nancy Brown, we are at the cusp of a potentially momentous time in the evolution of health care in this country. The President and Congress are committed to enacting some iteration of health care reform this calendar year. This puts not only Congress but also all stakeholders on an aggressive schedule to review, comment and contribute to the process.

Several topics were reviewed and are worth reiterating now; as an organization, the AHA believes that health care reform that does not result in health care that is as good as or better than the currently available care for most Americans would not represent progress. As an organization we early on staked out the six principles of health care reform that we believe should guide the shape of any program that emerges: everyone in America should have meaningful, affordable health care coverage; preventative benefits are a necessary and important part of health care coverage; all US residents should receive high quality care; health care disparities on the basis of age, gender, race/ethnicity must be eliminated; medical research is an important part of health care reform; and the healthcare workforce should reflect the changing needs of the country.

The AHA Advocacy office and our AHA health policy experts have been working tirelessly to “keep us in the loop”. Both the Senate and the House are developing versions of health care reform. Certain components of health care reform are represented in most, if not all of the pending bills and many of those components are consistent with our AHA policies. These include the elimination of pre-existing medical conditions; the ability to keep already adequate health insurance; extra assistance for low and moderate income families to acquire affordable health insurance and support for small businesses to provide health insurance to all employees. A recently proposed novel strategy creates an “Exchange’ which would represent a portfolio of insurance products from which individuals may select the plan best suited for them and their families. The Exchange would foster competition between the different plans and would create a pool that could be accessed by small and moderate businesses that might not otherwise have the leverage to negotiate coverage rates and benefits. A publicly funded option may be another component of this Exchange and though there is much debate about a ‘public option’, much of that debate needs to be held in abeyance until the details of any public option plan emerge. We anticipate that most proposals are consistently removing lifetime maximal benefits and will insure that once individuals have become sick, health insurance coverage will not disappear.

Clearly there are contentious issues in this debate. The public option being just one of those, employer mandates being another and most recently the possibility of taxing health insurance benefits has emerged. The AHA as a volunteer health organization that has a patient centric approach has not taken a position on any of these issues per se. Our approach has been to follow the process closely and to support the best solutions that achieve our 3 “A”s; affordability, accessibility and adequacy of health care.

The Q & A today was enlightening and brought a personal context to the debate. We heard stories of children with complex heart disease who are underinsured, stroke victims unable to fully participate in rehab programs and victims of heart disease and stroke who are passionate about the incorporation of prevention in any health care reform program. We heard the stories and resonate with the need. The feedback we received today serves to galvanize our efforts even more. Participating in the health care reform process is on the AHA radar screen and will remain an active focus for the AHA and the American Stroke Association in 2009 and beyond as needed.

Healthcare Reform- Share your thoughts

Right now, President Obama is hosting an online town hall on healthcare reform. Also today, AHA CEO Nancy Brown and AHA President Clyde Yancy will host a call with You're the Cure advocates to discuss AHA's role in the healthcare reform debate, and how you can have a voice in the discussion.

Please sign our petition in support of healthcare reform that makes healthcare available, affordable and adequate for everyone. We also invite you to share your story. How has the broken healthcare system impacted you or your family? How can reform help you?

Join the discussion on Facebook!
Visit our You're the Cure fanpage and become friends with Katie Paper Doll. Both pages will keep you up to date on AHA's healthcare reform efforts and give you a place to engage in the dialogue.

And, you can leave your comments here as well. We want to know what you think!

Join the National Discussion on Healthcare Reform

President Obama is inviting you to share your questions on healthcare reform. Then, during an online town hall Wednesday at 1:15 pm Eastern, he'll answer some of the most popular questions.

More information in available on the White House Blog: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/A-National-Discussion-on-Health-Care-Reform/

You can help ensure heart disease and stroke patients have a voice in the discussion!

Submit your question through YouTube, Twitter or Facebook:

• Record and post a 20-30 second video response to the President's YouTube video
• Use the hashtag #WHHCQ to ask your question via Twitter
• Visit the White House page on Facebook and ask your question there

Then, participate live in the President's online town hall Wednesday, July 1 at 1:15 pm Eastern. You can access the town hall at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

We'd love to know what questions you're asking... leave a comment here and tell us what issues you hope the President will address during his town hall.

The White House Signing of the FDA Tobacco Bill

Today, we have a guest post from AHA CEO Nancy Brown. Enjoy!

"I was honored to join AHA President, Dr. Timothy Gardner, Government Relations Manager Derek Scholes, and dozens of our public health partners at the White House yesterday when President Obama signed the FDA Tobacco Bill.

It was a great privilege to join our public health partners in celebrating over a decade of work to further this important legislation. I can’t think of another piece of legislation that has the support of over 1,000 public health organizations who worked tirelessly to advance this cause. The American Heart Association remained at the forefront of this fight with key partners, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

The significance of this legislation on the health of Americans can’t be emphasized strongly enough. I am grateful to our You’re the Cure Advocates, and American Heart Association staff and volunteers across the country who have devoted so much time and energy to make this day a reality.

I’ve had several people ask – “so what was it like to be at the White House”? The signing celebration was actually in the Rose Garden, which is as beautiful in person as it is on television. The President was joined by Vice President Biden, and over a dozen key Members of Congress who were there smiling broadly as the bill was signed. President Obama made a very passionate speech about the importance of the bill, the lives it will save, and the savings to our healthcare system we will realize because of improved public health. He even commented on his own use of tobacco, which began when he was a teenager. Check out the photos posted below of the signing ceremony.

Following the ceremony, we joined other AHA DC-based staff at a celebration party hosted by the American Cancer Society. There, I was able to share my thoughts on the significance of this bill to the AHA, our mission, and the public we serve. John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, the volunteer chairman of the board of the American Lung Association, and Matt Myers, CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids also talked passionately about the impact this bill will have.

It was such an honor to represent all of the AHA volunteers and staff on such a significant day. I will remember this day always.

As an interesting aside, I asked our two former CEO’s recently to reflect upon their visits to the White House as well as on the decade long fight for FDA regulation. Both Cass Wheeler and Dudley Hafner have been blogging and twittering about their experiences over the years in the fight for FDA regulation of tobacco products. Dudley shared with me yesterday that he visited the White House three times when he was CEO: Once with President Reagan, and twice for visits with President Clinton, all to talk about the importance of and need for strong public policy in the area of tobacco control. Cass also had several opportunities to visit the White House during his tenure as CEO, and he even ran a short race with President Clinton early in his years as CEO…

Thank you again for all of your work to advance this critical piece of legislation that will truly change the health of Americans."

CEO Nancy Brown at the White House

On Monday, American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown and AHA President Timothy Gardner were in the White House Rose Garden as the President signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. You can read Nancy Brown's statement on the momentous occasion below. She is seen in this photo from CNN shaking hands with President Obama just after he signed the bill.

Nancy Brown's Statement:

"Today, President Obama signed landmark legislation that will have a dramatic impact on the health of all Americans as we fight to reduce death and disease from tobacco use. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will force the tobacco industry to abandon a destructive business model that kills more than 400,000 Americans each year. No longer will Big Tobacco be allowed to deceive children and adults with misleading claims about hazardous products. No longer will tobacco companies have free reign to launch shameless advertising campaigns targeting children in hopes of addicting a new generation of smokers.

We commend the Administration and Congress for enacting legislation that will turn the tide in our battle to save lives and significantly reduce the smoking rate among children and adults. Too many lives have been cut short by the cycle of addiction. Nearly one-third of heart disease and stroke deaths are linked to tobacco use, the nation’s leading preventable cause of death. We’re pleased that the tobacco industry will now be held accountable for a health crisis that’s largely the result of irresponsible marketing campaigns and deceptive business practices. With this new law, we are in a stronger position to provide lifesaving information to consumers and keep cigarettes out of the hands of children."

A Smoke-free Society?

From former American Heart Association CEO Dudley Hafner...
"What is a smoke free society? In 1987 or thereabouts, Surgeon General Everett Koop challenged the AHA, ACS and ALA to deliver a smoke free society, but more specifically he challenged our organizations to graduate a smoke free class of high school seniors by the year 2000. With the passage of the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” who is to say that we can’t someday reach that goal. Maybe it is a little over reaching. However after languishing around a 26% smoking rate for the last several years I suggest that with the new FSPTC act, continued aggressive education and public policy we could see a smoking rate as low as 5% in a generation or two. Any bets?"

The President is slated to sign the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law tomorrow(Monday) afternoon! What a remarkable day for the tobacco control movement! Visit www.heartprescription.org to thank lawmakers for passing this life-saving legislation.

More Reflections from Cass Wheeler

"One of the most significant things to happen to the tobacco control movement was in the mid 90s when the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation decided to enter the fray and was willing to make a multi million dollar financial commitment annually over many years. This funding resulted in the formation of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and a broader coalition. It was also in the 90s that Mississippi filed suit against the industry to recover costs they had incurred in Medicaid payments as a result of tobacco use. Other states began to follow suit resulting in the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the tobacco industry and the largest financial transaction is the history of the world—236 billion dollars. It was in the spring of 1998 that parts of the MSA , including FDA regulation, were discussed on the floor of the US Senate for 4-5 weeks. This was the longest debate in the Senate since civil rights legislation in the 60s. FDA regulation lost by 2 votes in the Senate.

The next phase was the FDA looking at the statutes and determining that they actually had authority to regulate anything that altered the state of the body and that nicotine did exactly that. Of course, the industry filed suit and it ultimately went to the Supreme Court and the industry won by a 5-4 vote with the court stating that Congress needed to grant the FDA authority. So, since we were thwarted at the federal level we took the fight locally, advocating for clean indoor air laws at the local and state levels and fighting for increased excise taxes. Many of you have been a part of these victories and you changed the landscape and created a tipping point. As these laws became more prevalent, it became easier to make our case in Washington. Nothing happens at the federal level without a strong grassroots movement and that’s what you provided. It wouldn’t have happened had you not changed the environment locally and then made your voice heard in DC. What you do locally makes a huge difference.

The single greatest cause of preventable death in the U.S. is tobacco use—440,000 deaths a year. Now for the first time in the history of this country we have a level playing field and no longer will we allow the industry to prey on our kids and addict them. Remember, 88% of current smokers became addicted as underage youth and the industry’s own documents indicate that they implemented strategies to market to kids as young as 11. That will now come to an end and each of you has been a part of making the world a better place. My thanks to all of you."

Stay tuned for more from former AHA CEOs Cass Wheeler and Dudley Hafner over the next few days...

While we look ahead to the President's bill signing on Monday, take a moment to thank Members of Congress who voted to pass this life-saving legislation. Visit http://www.heartprescription.org/ to send your email.