State Children's Health Insurance Program

Legislation to expand and reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is on the Congressional agenda for next week. Reauthorization of SCHIP must be addressed early in the 111th Congress as the SCHIP extension passed by Congress in 2007 expires on March 31, 2009. Prevent Blindness America joined with other vision advocacy organizations to send letters to House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership and members and Senate Finance Committee leadership and members requesting that eye and vision care be fully recognized and included in the SCHIP reauthorization legislation that the Committees will consider in 2009. Because states across the country are facing serious budget shortfalls and pressures, they are considering reductions to their Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Prevent Blindness America and the vision community are concerned that eye and vision care is not an assured benefit under SCHIP and will fall victim to any cuts made in the program. It is our goal to make eye and vision care a permanent provision in SCHIP.

USA Today Letter

USA TODAY ran a letter to the editor that president and CEO, Hugh R. Parry submitted on behalf of Prevent Blindness America! The letter was in response to an article regarding safe toys. Although the original article focused on toys containing lead and other toxins, our letter pointed out the dangers in toys that are considered “safe.”

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/12/keep-in-mind-wh.html

Health News in the Media

A November 24, 2008 Kaiser Family Foundation report (http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7839.cfm) found that in the 18 month period from January 2007 to June 2008 health news was the 8th biggest subject in national news, comprising 3.6% of all coverage. Crime, natural disasters and foreign affairs all received more coverage than health news. Democratic Congressional leaders plan to work on several bills in early January 2009, including health care related bills addressing SCHIP and embryonic stem cell research (http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/nation/11/23/1123congressobama.html).

November is American Diabetes Month

And World Diabetes Day is November 14. Diabetes affects more than 23 million Americans, and that number is projected to more than double by the year 2050. The Centers for Disease Control has published a number of promotional materials and information on its website regarding diabetes during this American Diabetes Month. Tools may be found at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes.

In conjunction with American Diabetes Month, Prevent Blindness America has declared November as Diabetic Eye Disease Month in an effort to educate the public on how diabetes can affect vision. Nearly half of all diabetics have some form of diabetic retinopathy, and diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 20-74 years of age. Patients and healthcare professionals can find more information diabetic eye diseases, risk factors, treatment options and Medicare benefits at http://www.diabetes-sight.org.