November 2005 | Vol. 23, No. 11

Status of the SAAAVE Act

Earlier this year the Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently (SAAAVE) Act (H.R. 827/S.390) was re-introduced in the 109th Congress to address a serious health risk for elderly Americans -- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms. The new bill would direct Medicare to cover abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening under part B of the Medicare Program. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms are one of our nation's most preventable but often neglected conditions, taking approximately 15,000 American lives a year.

• H.R. 827, introduced in House by Representative John Shimkus (R-IL), is now co-sponsored by 33 other Representatives.
• S. 390, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), is now co-sponsored by 14 other Senators.

You can find the list of SAAAVE Act co-sponsors by going to the Thomas website at http://thomas.loc.gov and entering either H.R. 827 or S. 390 in the Bill number search field. After clicking on Search, click on Bill Summary and Status, and then click on cosponsors to get a complete list of all of the Bill’s cosponsors.

Grassroots letters are an important part of getting Congressional members to sign onto this important legislation. Thus, SVU members are urged to send a letter by fax to their two U.S. Senators and sole U.S. Representative to ask for their support of the SAAAVE Act. Sample Congressional letters are posted on the SVU website (www.svunet.org) under Advocacy News. You can get your Representative’s or Senator’s office fax numbers by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking to be connected to your Representative’s or Senator’s office. Then tell them you are a constituent and would like the office fax number to fax a letter to the Representative or Senator about being a co-sponsor of the SAAAVE Act.

If you send a letter by fax to your Members of Congress, SVU would appreciate receiving a copy of your correspondence. Please send it to SVU Executive Director Steve Haracznak by email at steveh@svunet.org, by fax at 301-459-5651, or by land mail to the SVU national office in Lanham, MD. Thanks for your support of the SAAAVE Act.