Act Now
Keep up the pressure on Congress to include $10 billion for NIH in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks to a strong show of support from research advocates and leadership from Senators Specter, Harkin and Durbin, the Senate approved an amendment to increase the NIH allocation from $3.5 billion to $10 billion. As Senate and House leadership reconcile the bills, urge your members to reinforce their support for research as a critical economic driver in communities across America.
Call your representative and senators to let them know you want $10 billion for NIH included in the final version of the bill. Find your members’ phone numbers and use the talking points below.
The funding for NIH will:
• provide short-term economic stimulus by creating 70,000 jobs;
• more than double each dollar invested in economic output;
• boost the economy of every state because 90% of NIH funding is distributed to colleges, universities and research institutions across the country;
• help the U.S. remain competitive globally in research and innovation;
• allow Americans to live longer, healthier, more productive lives and
• reduce health care costs through more effective prevention and treatment.
Tell your delegation that investing in NIH now will pay off in the short- and long-term. The best way to contact your members is by calling, but you can also send them an e-mail. Take action now!
Tags: action, Congress, economic recovery
When we talk about a health care recovery, there are many things that should not be financed within our health community because they are broken.
1. The US spends more dollars than any other country on health care but is about 49th from the top in terms of health.
2. Our capacity to diagnose often outstrips our capacity to cure or treat.
3. Medical accidental deaths are the forth or fifth leading cause of death, incredible!
4. Public Health needs to be amply funded, cleaning the water did more for the elimination of polio than the Salk vacine.
5. Corporate health care ‘for profit,’ is an inherantly uncomfortable idea, that people can get ‘rich’ off of the ills of others. Doesn’t seem to fit my family values.
6. Promoting healthy lifestyles should be at the forefront of our efforts.
7. Studying what makes a healthy lifestyle would be great research, and much has been done along these lines.
8. Even though vitamin supplements and herbs have gotten a bad rap from the press and scientific community lately, they still represent a principal that is very worthy of considreration, that is: People being empowered to help themselves, or having some sense that they have some control over there own bodies and habits.
9. People can go broke and lose lifelong savings, with very little effort within the current health care system. Is that OK? I think not.