Senator Gillibrand Unveils Asthma Prevention Program

North Brooklynites, take a deep breath. On Tuesday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced her plans to introduce legislation that will provide all children with asthma in New York State with access to free spacers and inhalers, in addition to earmarking federal funding for comprehensive asthma research and data collection, as well as to train more certified asthma specialists.
“All New York children deserve the opportunity to grow up strong, healthy and successful,” Senator Gillibrand said. “But too many of our children suffering with asthma do not have access to inhalers and other kinds of care they need. My own child has asthma, so I know about the horrible toll this can have on children. We have a moral obligation to the children of this state to ensure their health and well-being. My plan will put more inhalers in schools, train more teachers and health professionals to be experts in asthma, and give more families the resources they need to care for their children’s asthma.”
In New York State, over 370,000 children suffer from asthma—180,000 of whom live in New York City. More than 8 percent of children statewide and 14 percent of low-income children in New York suffer from asthma, and more than 40,000 New York children were hospitalized for asthma attacks between 2005 and 2007.
Gillibrand’s comprehensive four-point plan, which she will introduce as soon as summer recess is over, primarily involves arming New York schools with preventative and emergency treatment capabilities, and continues as follows:
1. Make Inhalers Available to Every Child in Need
The FDA now requires drug makers to manufacture inhalers with a reduced impact on the environment, and completed phasing out the sale of the inhalers containing harmful propellants last year. To help schools and families afford the new inhalers they need, Gillibrand’s plan will provide over $100 million in funding to schools in low-income, high-incidence areas to purchase inhalers and spacers – so children suffering from asthma have access to the treatment they need. The cost of the program is based on asthma rates among low income children at Title I schools. The funding will provide the school with the inhalers they need and a spacer for every child.
2. Create School Asthma Management Plans
In order to qualify for the free inhalers and spacers program, Gillibrand will require that schools draft and implement a comprehensive school asthma management policy and program, including:
• A method to identify all students with asthma and their prescriptions;
• Asthma education for all school staff;
• Access to medication and methods to administer medication for all children based on their individual needs;
• Medication and emergency policies specific to each school;
• Protocols and training to support clinical management of acute symptoms and ongoing management;
• Systems to support ongoing care coordination with family, primary care provider and others as necessary;
• Methods to monitor quality and outcomes of student’s asthma care;
3. Train More Asthma Educators
New York only has about 100 asthma educators – experts in counseling individuals with asthma and their families on how to treat and lead healthy lives with asthma. Asthma educators are required to put in 1,000 hours at clinical sites to complete their training, a cost that is not reimbursable by insurance. This puts considerable financial burden on anyone interested in becoming an asthma educator.
To incentivize more health professionals to become asthma educators, Gillibrand is urging U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to direct more workforce development funding to support the training of additional certified asthma educators in New York and across the country.
Investing in asthma educators can help minimize the effects of asthma on a child’s everyday life and cut costs over the long run by reducing expensive trips to the emergency room. In fact, studies show that for every dollar invested in asthma education, we can save up to $36 in direct and indirect costs associated with treating asthma.
4. Invest in More Research and Data Collection
Medical and scientific research holds the potential to unlock new treatments for children suffering from asthma. To give scientists and laboratories the resources they need to make the next breakthrough in asthma treatment, Gillibrand will introduce the Asthma Act – legislation sponsored by Congresswoman Nita Lowey in the House, which will provide new funding for asthma research.
Additionally, this legislation will improve collaboration of federal agencies for better asthma surveillance and data collection, and give all states, schools and families the resources they need to raise awareness, provide asthma training for educators, and referrals to health plans that provide treatment for every child suffering from asthma through the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Furthermore, national data on asthma rates is lacking, presenting an enormous obstacle in our efforts to combat this problem over the long term. Over the coming months, Gillibrand will work with Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey to author legislation that will help to create standardized national data that will help identify where funding is needed most.
Greenpoint and Williamsburg—like so many other neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs—have exceptionally high asthma rates, and Gillibrand’s plan aims to provide relief to children suffering from it. Though the plan does not include truly preventative measures, like environmental studies, it is designed to treat those who are already afflicted.
“High asthma rates in children have to do with long-term environmental damage, including lack of parks to clean the air, and proximity to highways,” Gillibrand said. “It’s relevant to the air quality of a given region.”
However, Gillibrand believes that though her plan does not necessarily tackle the root of the asthma problem, the changing landscape of the country’s health care system will ultimately pick up some of the slack.
“We are shifting away from an emergency health care system towards a preventive health care system,” Gillibrand said. “I think there will be a lot of support for this. If it can be part of the health care debate, more asthma-related funding as part of health care reform could be the way to move forward.”