2009 You're the Cure on the Hill Advocates Speak Out to Make Heart Issues a National Priority!

Congratulations and thank you to all of you for making our 2009 You’re the Cure on the Hill in Washington, DC a huge success!!! Your passion and stories helped us make a difference in lobbying our Illinois Congressional Members and Staff in Washington, DC on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.

Science Council Attendees
Dana Edelson
Pamela Garmon Johnson
Debra Geihsler
Mariann Piano
Dorothy Lanuza
Hossein Ardehali
Lynne Braun

You're the Cure Advocates
Almarie Wagner
Phil Fasone
Bernardo Salazar
Erin Grady
Jaime Olsen
Liz Andrews
Joseph Goldzweig
Andrea Sullivan
Debbi Waters
Kate Steigerwald
Clarke Stegierwald
Alec Duncan
Paul Kalil
Melissa Horn

We successfully dropped off and spoke with 19 Congressional districts and both our Illinois U.S. Senate offices while in DC, asking them to support increased funding for heart disease and stroke research and prevention programs as well as highlighting the key aspects we’d like to see in meaningful health care reform: accessibility, affordability, and adequate care!

Overall, we had 465 participants from all 50 states – which was tremendous! They participated in 354 meetings on the Hill, including 100 meetings in the Senate and 254 in the United States House of Representatives. Almost half of these meetings (45%) were scheduled to be meetings with the actual Member of Congress. We were extremely pleased that we had You’re the Cure advocates who covered 92% of the targeted districts. Overall, we had 220 meetings with Democrats, 131 meetings with Republicans and 2 Independents.

The Asks- present and future: This year You’re the Cure advocates asked lawmakers to sign the letter to the President urging him to make funding to fight heart disease and stroke a top priority. The deadline for signatories is May 20th. As Gov’t Relations staff does follow-up on this end, we encourage attendees to follow up with the offices directly as well and remind them of the ask they made in the Lobby Day meetings to secure signatories. The letter can also be accessed from on the web: http://americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3066307. Healthcare reform is still moving full steam ahead with the possibility of a bill introduction prior to the Memorial Recess Break. Although bills like HEART for Women, FDA, and FIT Kids were not specific asks for all of your meetings, we are already seeing some Members signing on thanks to the visits.