Senate Bill sb2952

    Florida Senate - 2003        (NP)                      SR 2952

    By Senator Wilson





    33-2350-03

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution recognizing the week of April

  3         20-26, 2003, as "Minority Cancer Awareness

  4         Week" in the State of Florida.

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  6         WHEREAS, although progress is being made in the fight

  7  against cancer, the incidence of cancer is greater among

  8  Floridians who are medically underserved than those who have

  9  adequate access to quality medical care and treatment, and

10         WHEREAS, most Floridians who are medically underserved

11  are without adequate health care insurance, and the great

12  majority of these are senior citizens, people of African and

13  Latin descent, and people who are living below the national

14  standard for poverty, and

15         WHEREAS, 60 percent of all incidences of cancer and 65

16  percent of all cancer deaths occur in people who are over the

17  age of 65, and the United States Census estimates that, if

18  population trends continue, Florida will soon have more senior

19  citizens than any other state, and

20         WHEREAS, people of African descent, who constitute 15.2

21  percent of Florida's population, the largest element of

22  Florida's minority population, are 33 percent more likely to

23  die of cancer than people of Caucasian descent, and are 200

24  percent more likely to die of cancer than are people of Latin

25  descent, and

26         WHEREAS, people of Latin descent are the

27  fastest-growing element of the nation's population, are

28  expected by 2005 to become the largest element of Florida's

29  minority population, and the majority of people of Latin

30  descent are medically underserved due to cultural and language

31  differences and lack of adequate health care insurance, and

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2003        (NP)                      SR 2952
    33-2350-03




 1         WHEREAS, 15.2 percent of Floridians live below the

 2  national standard for poverty and do not have adequate medical

 3  insurance, and

 4         WHEREAS, due to the continuing efforts of the Biennial

 5  Symposium on Minorities and the Medically Underserved, this

 6  year is the 17th consecutive year in which Minority Cancer

 7  Awareness Week is observed nationally, and adoption of this

 8  resolution will provide the inaugural occasion for Minority

 9  Cancer Awareness Week to be observed in Florida, and

10         WHEREAS, minority cancer awareness initiatives, such as

11  those promoted by the Florida Division of the American Cancer

12  Society, will promote strategies to reduce the ethnic and

13  racial cancer disparities, NOW, THEREFORE,

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15  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

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17         That the Florida Senate recognizes the week of April

18  20-26, 2003, as "Minority Cancer Awareness Week" in the State

19  of Florida.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.