[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL VISION STRATEGY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 5, 2004

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, as a Co-Chair of the Congressional 
Vision Caucus, I would like to recognize May as Healthy Vision Month, 
and to discuss the important recommendations of the Vision Problems 
Action Plan, A National Public Health Strategy as a way to prevent 
blindness and vision loss.
  Good vision is critical to conducting activities of daily living, is 
a portal for language, and affects developmental learning, 
communicating, working, and quality of life.
  Unfortunately, a large number of people are at risk for losing their 
vision. More than 80 million Americans have a potentially blinding eye 
disease, 3 million have low vision, 1.1 million are legally blind, and 
an additional 200,000 are more severely visually impaired. Despite the 
fact that half of all blindness can be prevented, far too many people 
do not access the care they need. If we do not take action, the number 
of blind and visually impaired individuals will double by 2030.
  Awareness, early diagnosis and prevention are crucial for all. 
Healthy Vision Month, a component of Healthy People 2010, is a national 
eye health campaign to raise awareness about the various conditions 
that can affect eyesight and cause vision loss.
  This week, a coalition of leading eye health experts, including 
Prevent Blindness America, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, Lighthouse International, and the American Academy of 
Ophthalmology, released the Vision Problems Action Plan, A National 
Public Health Strategy. This important document will provide our nation 
with a framework for preventing vision loss.
  This groundbreaking study recommends that, in order to reduce the 
occurrence of vision loss and its accompanying disabilities, our nation 
must concentrate our efforts three priority areas: prevention/public 
health, access to care and treatment including rehabilitation, and 
research.
  Our public health and prevention campaign must ensure that vision 
programs at the National Eye Institute (NEI) and Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC) have the resources they need to improve 
communication and education campaigns, increase surveillance, 
epidemiology and prevention research; and implement appropriate 
programs, policies and systems changes.
  In order to ensure access to and availability of treatment and 
rehabilitation services for individuals with vision loss, we must 
support programs at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services 
(CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that remove 
barriers and improve access to eye exams currently covered under 
Medicare, such as diabetic eye exams and glaucoma detection for high 
risk populations.

  We must also strengthen the Medicare program to advance coverage for 
Medicare vision rehabilitation services as provided by orientation and 
mobility specialists, rehabilitation teachers and low-vision therapists 
including in patients homes and their environment.
  Finally, we must bolster our research efforts to improve our 
understanding of the eye and visual system in health and disease, as 
well as developing the most appropriate and effective means of 
prevention, and access to treatment and rehabilitation.
  This report provides the roadmap we need to raise awareness about 
vision loss, give individuals the tools they need to prevent it, and 
give hope to the millions already suffering from vision loss that 
better treatments for can be found.
  We would like to thank all of the organizations involved in drafting 
this report, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the 
American Optometric Association, the Centers For Disease Control and 
Prevention, Lighthouse International, the National Alliance For Eye and 
Vision Research, the National Eye Institute (NEI) and most importantly, 
Prevent Blindness America. Prevent Blindness America should be 
commended for spearheading this effort, for bringing together these 
various groups, and for its almost century-long tradition of preventing 
vision loss.

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