Lung Cancer Alliance Praises Congresswoman Donna Christensen for Introduction of Legislation to Correct Healthcare D...( Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Progr...),Health

Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Program Included as Key Provision of Plan

WASHINGTON, July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sweeping legislation to correct long-standing disparities in health care treatment and outcomes also includes the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Program, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) President & CEO Laurie Fenton Ambrose announced today.

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Introduced in the House of Representatives just before the Fourth of July break by Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen (D-VI), the 353 page bill entitled The Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2009 (H.R. 3090) calls for specific actions to tear down barriers, improve workforce diversity, ensure accountability and improve health care services.

"The goal is to achieve more equitable healthcare services across lines of race, and ethnicity, gender and geography," said Congresswoman Christensen, who is the only female physician in Congress and who also chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust.

Specifically addressed in the bill are several diseases which have a disparate impact on minorities, including lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer in every ethnic group. Lung cancer also has 30-35% higher incidence and mortality rate among African American men -- a disparity that is still not being researched or even publicized.

"Thanks to Congresswoman Christensen's leadership, this is finally starting to change," said Fenton Ambrose.

In April, Congresswoman Christensen introduced as a separate bill, the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act (H.R.2112), the first authorizing legislation ever giving lung cancer research priority status and calling for
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