Establishes a Minority Coordinating Council on Asthmatic Affairs within the department of health to assess the asthma risk factors for the minority citizens of our state, counties and regions; identify the existing barriers to quality asthma treatment and care among minorities; develop action steps for addressing care issues; and launch a state-wide asthma awareness campaign to educate our citizens about the disease; requires report.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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4157--A
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 15, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sens. MONTGOMERY, HASSELL-THOMPSON, SERRANO, THOMPSON --
read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
the Committee on Health -- recommitted to the Committee on Health in
accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
AN ACT to establish a Minority Coordinating Council on Asthmatic Affairs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. According to the American
2 Lung Association, there are over 1.6 million New Yorkers with asthma,
3 with over 380,000 of them being children. The annual cost of asthma is
4 estimated to be nearly 18 billion dollars. Access to health care for
5 ethnic minorities is often hampered by socio-economic disparities, shor-
6 tages of primary care physicians in minority communities, language and
7 literacy barriers, and cultural beliefs about the role and usefulness of
8 medicines. There have emerged clear disparities in the burden and treat-
9 ment of asthma in the communities of ethnic minorities. The burden of
10 asthma falls disproportionately on the African-American and Hispanic
11 populations, and especially on children of these ethnic minorities.
12 Therefore, it is the intent of this legislature to create a coordinating
13 council to address these issues and to improve awareness and management
14 of asthma prevention and treatment for minorities in this state.
15 § 2. The commissioner of health shall establish a Minority Coordinat-
16 ing Council on Asthmatic Affairs. The commissioner shall appoint as many
17 members as he or she determines appropriate. Such members shall be
18 representative of those regions of the state with significant minority
19 populations and shall include health care professionals with knowledge
20 and experience in the prevention and treatment of asthma and in the
21 areas of public health care funding. The council shall be tasked with:
22 (a) assessing the asthma risk factors for the minority citizens of this
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07288-03-0
S. 4157--A 2
1 state, its counties and regions; (b) identifying the existing barriers
2 to quality asthma treatment and care among minorities; (c) developing
3 action steps for addressing care issues; and (d) launching a state-wide
4 asthma awareness campaign to educate citizens about the disease, its
5 symptoms, and the ability to better manage asthma through prevention and
6 treatment. The council shall deliver an annual report addressing various
7 asthma program successes, new trends, data and issues surrounding minor-
8 ity populations suffering from asthma to the governor and the legisla-
9 ture beginning September 1, 2011, and annually thereafter.
10 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
