Thanks to You’re the Cure advocates across the country, 2015 was a banner year in our goal to end heart disease and stroke. As we toast to 2016, let’s take a look back at everything we've accomplished together in the past 12 months.
Here are just a few of the highlights! Let's start with victories at the state and local level:
- Almost a half- million people gained access to health insurance coverage through the expansion of the Medicaid program in Indiana, New Hampshire, Montana, and Alaska.
- Ten more states passed measures to screen infants for congenital heart defects, meaning over 500,000 more babies will be screened each year. The simple, inexpensive, lifesaving pulse oximetry test is now required in more than 40 states.
- More than 1.6 million students will graduate from high school with CPR skills each year, thanks to new laws requiring this lifesaving skill in New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Indiana, Oregon, Connecticut, San Francisco, North Dakota, New York and Illinois.
- The City of New Orleans went smokefree.
- Any many more…
In Washington, DC, we've made great strides to improve the heart health of all Americans, including:
- Successfully protecting standards for healthy school meals.
- The passage of the Every Child Achieves Act, which will ensure schools can provide the robust physical education programs our kids need.
- Gaining over 40 cosponsors for the Furthering Access to Stroke Telemedicine (FAST) Act.
Also, let's not forget that over 350 You’re the Cure advocates traveled to Washington D.C. in the spring and asked their lawmakers to protect healthy school meals and increase funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
We couldn’t achieve these great accomplishments without the power of YOU, our advocates. Your work to educate lawmakers, recruit family and friends, and share your story and expertise are what makes change happen. So from your AHA staff partners a big, Thank You!
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