During a recent Ways and Means Committee hearing, our House sponsor, Rep Dave Reichert, made an impassioned speech about the importance of the Lymphedema Treatment Act!
You can watch Rep Reichert’s statement HERE.
This was a Medicare-related hearing, so he specifically references how the LTA will help seniors with lymphedema. However, since Medicare sets the standard for all other insurance plans, passage of the LTA will benefit all patients.
What follows is the actual correspondence our board received from Rep Reichert’s Legislative Director:
“Today, during the Ways and Means Committee markup, Congressman Reichert raised the Lymphedema Treatment Act, and his remarks were echoed by Rep. Blumenauer. We were so thrilled to have been joined by Rep. Blumenauer in our remarks and have bipartisan comments in the record supporting the LTA. It was a great moment to have the Chairman publicly hear from both members and it adds to the record we’ve created, beginning with the Congressman’s questions to previous HHS Secretaries and his testimony on the LTA before the Health Subcommittee last congress.
Every day we move forward and make progress on gaining relief for lymphedema patients! I’m so thrilled with how far we’ve come since we first started working together and how many leaps and bounds we’ve made this year in just the first 5 months of the new congress. Already we’ve surpassed our cosponsor total from all of last congress! We wouldn’t be where we are without your advocacy, thank you for all your hard work. Together, we’re going to get this done.”
This week, myself and three other members of our board will be on Capitol Hill meeting with offices. We frequently listen to staff take constituent calls while in offices, and would love for them to get a call about the LTA while we’re there!
Please take a couple of minutes to call your members of Congress who are not yet cosponsoring the LTA (again if you already have) and ask them to cosponsor this bill. You’ll find the phone number and a brief call script at the links below.
Thank you for your advocacy and let’s get those phones ringing for the LTA!
* Call your Senators (Current Senate Cosponsors)
* Call your Representative (Current House Cosponsors)
Heather Ferguson
Founder & Executive Director
Lymphedema Advocacy Group
LymphedemaTreatmentAct.org
