Attacking Asthma
Phil Angelides has pledged to launch an attack on asthma and to reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations for asthma by half during the next decade. Click here to learn more. Today, there are five million Californians with asthma - and 1.5 million are children. Asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations among children - over 160,000 hospitalizations in California last year. And nowhere is the concentration of children suffering from asthma higher than in the Central Valley. To combat asthma, Phil Angelides vowed to take decisive action to:
- Keep children from smoking. Phil Angelides is supporting Proposition 86, the anti-tobacco initiative on the November ballot that targets teen smoking. Governor Schwarzenegger refuses to support the initiative.
- Fight for the toughest air quality standards. As Governor, Phil Angelides will support measures like the San Joaquin Valley Air Quality District's fees on developers. These fees reduce sprawl that promotes the smog that triggers asthma.
- Increase the state's asthma research, prevention, and management efforts. This will include programs in our schools to help children manage their disease and remove triggers for attacks.
- Expand health insurance coverage to all children so that asthmatic children get the care and medicine they need. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation to cover all children.
- Ensure that people with asthma get the treatment and disease management they need to stay healthy and productive. Angelides will regulate HMOs to make sure that the health care premiums of hard-working Californians go for health care like asthma management, not excessive CEO pay and profits.
- Lower the cost of prescription drugs. Angelides will sign legislation to let uninsured Californians buy prescription drugs at discounts negotiated for them by the state and set up websites for consumers to shop for the best prices for drugs, including safe imports from Canada and other countries.
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