Arthritis Prevention, Control and Cure Act

In case you aren’t a regular here @ The Girl from the Ghetto, you may not know that I suffer from 3 types of Arthritis: RA, AS, and Fibromyalgia. You can hunt around my page for more info on these types of diseases. All I will say here is that they suck, and I want you to help me in doing something about them. I am a big fan of writing my local, state, and federal representatives about issues that I feel passionate about. You may think I’m a kook, but I prefer the term advocate. In fact, I’m such a regular letter writer, 2 of my 3 congressmen sent me letters of commendation when I graduated college. Anyhoo, I digress …

Today, while visiting http://arthritis.org I read about legislation that good ‘ole Ted Kennedy is supporting, the

(S. 626/H.R. 1283)46 million reasons, one opportunity to make a difference

46 million Americans suffer from some form of arthritis. As the most common cause of disability and the third leading cause of work limitation in the U.S., arthritis has a significant impact on our nation’s economy.

The Facts:

• Arthritis costs our country $128 billion annually; $81 billion in direct medical costs.
• 294,000 children have a form of juvenile arthritis including juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma.
• By the year 2030, 67 million Americans or 25% of the adult population will have arthritis.
• Nearly 19 million people with arthritis are forced to stop working within 10 years of diagnosis.
• Americans with rheumatoid arthritis die 5 to 10 years earlier than persons without arthritis.
• 9,500 Americans die due to arthritis in 2003.
• 2/3 of Americans diagnosed with arthritis are under the age of 65.

To help address this ever-growing public health problem, Congress introduced the Arthritis Prevention, Control, and Cure Act (S. 626/H.R. 1283). This landmark legislation will:

• Strengthen arthritis public health initiatives, allowing more people to be diagnosed early and avoid pain and permanent disability;
• Expand the reach of evidence based self-management activities such as weight control and physical activity, which have been proven to reduce pain and reduce health care expenditures;
• Ensure that limited federal funding for arthritis is used in the most strategic manner possible through the formation of a federal interagency coordinating committee; and
• Authorize a remedy to address the country’s severe shortage of pediatric Rheumatologists.

Perhaps you are bored tonight, and have nothing to do before Rock of Love comes on at 9:00 pm. Visit this site, and sent an email to your elected officials. You can do this by either going to here

http://capwiz.com/arthritis/home/

or here

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

If you are short on time or words, the capwiz.com site will have emails already set up for you to enter in some quick info. Help me feel better … and help yourself feel better too by being an advocate for the night.

Thanks,

Amy