The mission of the American Heart Association is: Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
The American Heart Association / American Stroke Association supports and advocates for public policies that will help reduce coronary heart disease, stroke and risk by 25 percent by 2010. The following are the public policy priorities for Pennsylvania in 2009-2010.

♥ Heart Disease and Stroke Funding
While Pennsylvania does have a Heart Disease and Stroke Program through the PA Department of Health, the federal funding that solely supports its operations is not guaranteed each year. There is no state funding to support efforts to address the #1 and #3 leading causes of death. House Bill 816 would expand current functions of the Department of Health that promote best practices in the prevention and treatment of heart disease and stroke. We will work to pass House Bill 816 first to establish a strong statewide policy to address heart disease and stroke. We will then work to secure state funding to support implementation of House Bill 816.

♥ Quality of Care
Pennsylvania hospitals do not have a consistent set of measures or benchmarks to ensure quality care for stroke patients. We will work to ensure that all Pennsylvania hospitals are equipped with Get With the Guidelines as the state stroke registry data platform by passing House Bill 816, which would establish a framework for reaching this measure.

♥ Obesity Prevention
Pennsylvania, along with the rest of the nation, is in the grips of an obesity epidemic. Too many people are taking in too many calories and are not getting enough physical activity and this is especially true for our children.

• School Nutrition
  Schools are an especially effective and efficient environment for modeling healthy food choices and helping to instill in children lifelong behaviors of health and physical activity. Science tells us that eating and drinking a diet full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and non-dairy products, coupled with foods low in saturated and trans fats, cholesterol and added sugar and salt can significantly reduce one’s risk for becoming overweight or obese. But, yet so many of our schools have beverage, snack and a la carte items that have little nutritional value and are high in fats, sugars and sodium. We will work to ensure that more fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods and beverages are substituted and offered all throughout the school day.
  
• Physical Education
  Schools should promote a learning environment that integrates physical activity and education. Pennsylvania does not require PE as a condition for graduation, nor does it establish minute requirements for PE. We will work to promote quality PE by establishing mandatory minute standards, requiring physical education as a condition for graduation, and promoting physical activity and healthy food choices in our schools and throughout the community.
  
• Menu Labeling
  The AHA believes that educated consumers, armed with the right nutrition information, can make healthier choices when they eat out. We will work to strongly advocate for calorie labeling on all menus and menu boards at the point-of-purchase in restaurants with standardized menus and recipes.

♥ Chain of Survival
Pennsylvania’s Good Samaritan law provides civil immunity for lay rescuers, but the law is currently written in a way that provides program facilitators with civil immunity only if the AED program requirements are met. There is also currently no requirement that all schools implement an AED program. We will identify a legislative champion to support expanding Good Samaritan civil immunity to include program facilitators regardless of if the AED program requirements are met. We will also work to ensure all school buildings are equipped with an AED, in addition to implementation of Medical Emergency Response Plans that follow AHA guidelines.

♥ Tobacco Control
Pennsylvania passed a smoke-free law for public workplaces, but it provides for several exemptions to public places where people will be allowed to smoke. While Pennsylvania remains above the national average in its cigarette excise tax, the national average is quickly catching up to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania also remains the only state in the nation that does not tax other tobacco products (OTP). We will work to: Strengthen and protect smoke-free workplace laws and remove Pennsylvania’s preemption provision; support significant increases in tobacco excise taxes at all levels of government; and support tobacco control Prevention and treatment programs.

♥ Quality and Availability of Care
Our nation is in the midst of a health care crisis and state and federal governments are grappling over how to best reform our health care delivery system. We will continue to monitor legislative proposals that promote access to health care, expanded coverage for pre-existing conditions, scientifically-based pay-for performance and health information technology.


This is the beginning of a new series on our legislative work. First, we will share the legislative agendas of each state. In a few months, we will share a legislative update to inform advocates of where we stand on our set agenda. Finally, we will have a wrap-up post at the end of legislative session to share our final results.