Senate Bill sb1948

    Florida Senate - 2004                                  SM 1948

    By Senator Clary





    4-1540-04

  1                     Senate Memorial No. ____

  2         A memorial to the Congress of the United

  3         States, urging Congress to pass S. 1028 and its

  4         companion bill H.R. 1734 to amend the Public

  5         Health Service Act to establish an Office of

  6         Men's Health.

  7  

  8         WHEREAS, male morbidity and mortality from preventable

  9  causes is substantial, with significant and alarming

10  disparities among subpopulations of men based on race,

11  ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and

12         WHEREAS, a silent health crisis is affecting the health

13  and well-being of American men, and

14         WHEREAS, this health crisis is of particular concern to

15  men but is also a concern for women, especially those who have

16  fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers, and

17         WHEREAS, the National Center for Health Statistics has

18  shown that men have higher age-adjusted death rates than women

19  for each of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United

20  States, and

21         WHEREAS, men are almost twice as likely as women to die

22  from heart disease, and the incidence of stroke is over 10

23  percent higher in men than in women, and

24         WHEREAS, men are 50 percent more likely to die of

25  cancer than women, and

26         WHEREAS, the life expectancy gap between men and women

27  has steadily increased from 1 year in 1920 to 5 1/2 years in

28  2000, and

29         WHEREAS, since women live longer and tend to marry men

30  older than they are, seven out of ten "baby boom" women will

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    Florida Senate - 2004                                  SM 1948
    4-1540-04




 1  outlive their husbands--many of whom can expect to be widows

 2  for 15 to 20 years, and

 3         WHEREAS, compared with men, older women are three times

 4  more likely to be living alone, are nearly twice as likely to

 5  reside in a nursing home, and are more than twice as likely to

 6  live in poverty, and

 7         WHEREAS, more than one-half the elderly widows now

 8  living in poverty were not poor before the death of their

 9  husbands, and

10         WHEREAS, studies show that the huge health and

11  mortality disparity between men and women is due in part to a

12  lack of awareness, poor health education, and the low number

13  of male-specific health programs, and men are one-half as

14  likely as women to visit a doctor for regular physician

15  check-ups or to obtain preventative screening tests for

16  serious diseases, and

17         WHEREAS, men's health is also a concern for employers,

18  who lose productive employees as well as pay the cost of

19  medical care, and

20         WHEREAS, men's health is also a concern for federal and

21  state governments and society which absorb the enormous costs

22  of premature death and disability, including the costs of

23  caring for dependents left behind, and

24         WHEREAS, every state has formed a commission to address

25  women's issues or has established a women's health program,

26  but only seven states have a commission to address men's

27  issues or a men's health program, and

28         WHEREAS, educating men, their families, and health care

29  providers about the importance of early detection of male

30  health problems can result in reducing rates of mortality of

31  male-specific diseases as well as improving the health of

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    Florida Senate - 2004                                  SM 1948
    4-1540-04




 1  America's men and its overall economic well-being, NOW,

 2  THEREFORE,

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 4  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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 6         That the Congress of the United States is requested to

 7  support S. 1028 and H.R. 1734 amending the Public Health

 8  Service Act to establish an Office of Men's Health.

 9         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

10  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the

11  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the

12  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of

13  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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