On January 27, 2009, Lisa Iezzoni, MD, MSc, associate director of the MIHP and Harvard Medical School Professor of Medicine, testified in Washington, DC, before the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.  In the absence of committee chair Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa chaired the session, which was one of a series the Senate is conducting to inform legislation addressing comprehensive health care reform.  In his introductory comments, Senator Harkin described the purpose of the hearing as learning about ways to “improve access to preventive services and public health for vulnerable populations – groups that have been traditionally neglected and underserved, including people with disabilities, people who live in rural areas, senior citizens and children, especially those who live in poverty.”

In her testimony, Dr. Iezzoni noted that the 40-54 million Americans living with disabilities face the same risks of developing preventable acute and chronic health conditions as do other people; those with complex underlying health conditions may confront even higher risks of developing preventable conditions.  For a variety of reasons, however, persons with disabilities often experience disparities in their health and health care compared with nondisabled individuals.  Although Dr. Iezzoni serves on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020, her testimony represented her personal views and not the views of the committee. Dr. Iezzoni’s complete testimony is available at the Web link below.

Joining Dr. Iezzoni in testifying before the Senate HELP Committee were:  Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; David Stevens, Associate Medical Director of the National Association of Community Health Centers; Michael Meit, Principal Research Scientist at the National Opinion Research Center (University of Chicago) and Deputy Director of the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis; Robert Butler, president and CEO of the International Longevity Center-USA and professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai; and Joseph Hagan, clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_01_27/Iezzoni.pdf