Radnofsky Calls For Health Care Initiatives
Radnofsky Calls For Health Care Initiatives
Houston, Texas
March 23, 2006
U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Ann Radnofsky today called on Kay Bailey Hutchison to enact important health care initiatives for Texans.
Radnofsky today called on Kay Bailey Hutchison to obtain federal research funds for Rangel Pharmacy School in South Texas, a four year medical school in El Paso, and a Valley Veterans' Hospital.
Radnofsky explained, "The Air Force study on the biological effects on our servicemen who flew defoliation missions and the effects on other Vietnam- era vets has no funding to preserve the 87,000 biological specimens and data collected since the study began in 1982."
When the study ends in September, vital data about our veterans and the causes of their diseases will be buried. David Tollerud, chair of the Institute of Medicine committee concerning the study, told Anne Harding in TheScientist.com, "An extraordinary amount of data was collected on each and every person, the participation rate was very high, the biological samples that were collected from the very beginning were extraordinary and have been maintained properly over the years."
Radnofsky called for federally funded research in Texas: "A federal grant for research follow-up and analysis would be exactly the type of research that could flourish and support a Valley Veterans' Hospital where it could be conducted, the Rangel pharmacy school, and a four-year medical school in El Paso. Other necessary research should be funded in Texas locations, including the effect of basic medicine and diet in reducing obesity-related diabetes and health disparity in minority populations. This vital research could save millions of lives, reduce the costs of medical care, and save billions of taxpayer dollars while making medical institutions in Texas second to none."
Radnofsky concluded: "Hutchison must lead the way in obtaining authorization for this vital research. She must bring it home to Texas, where the medical needs are clear. On Hutchison's watch we have seen diabetes become an epidemic, veterans' health care decline to disastrously low levels, and neglected children's health care put Texas at the bottom of the barrel. My health care proposals and my call for research, pharmacy, and medical schools provide a real solution."
http://www.radnofsky.com/press_release.php?items_id=601