As a Member of KPHA Now is the Time to cast your Vote!

Its election season once again and we are asking you to elect the association's leaders! The KPHA Board of Directors plays an essential role in assuring that the association is doing its best to fulfill its mission and serve its members. We are asking for your help in making sure your vote counts in the following positions:

President-elect
Assumes the duties of president in his/her absence; will chair the planning committee for the 2010 annual statewide conference and serve on the executive committee. Term is one year, followed by one year as president.

Secretary
Keeps minutes of all association meetings; oversees notification of members concerning meetings and voting; sees to it that staff to keep membership records; also serves on the executive committee. Term is two years.

Director-at-Large (1 position open)
Attends board meetings, representing the membership in setting association policy and related activity. Term is two years.

You can get your ballot at: http://kpha.us/documents/2009documents/Ballot2009.doc

Please email your ballot back to director@kpha.us , or print it off and mail it to the KPHA office at P.O. Box 67085, Topeka, KS 66667, or bring it with you to the Annual Meeting. Tellers will be appointed at the business meeting and the officers will be announced.

Health Reform at the Top of the Agenda as Congress Returns

As Congress returns from the August summer recess, the House and Senate will again turn their focus to pending health reform legislation. The three committees (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Education and Labor) with primary jurisdiction over health reform in the House of Representatives reported out bills prior to the August recess; however the bill failed to make it to the House floor for full House consideration prior to the break. The House proposal contains strong public health and prevention previsions as well as a public insurance option. In the Senate, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee reported its bill in mid-July. The HELP Committee bill also contains very strong prevention and wellness provisions and a public insurance option. The other committee with jurisdiction over health reform in the Senate, the Finance Committee, has yet to produce an official proposal. Finance Chairman Baucus has spent the past several weeks working with a small bipartisan group of Finance Committee members including Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME) and Michael B. Enzi (R-WY) in an effort to develop a bipartisan bill that would not exceed $1 trillion in costs over 10 years. The outcome of the Senate Finance Committee discussions is especially critical given that the Committee will likely determine whether a public insurance option is included in the bill to be considered by the full Senate. APHA recently sent a letter to President Obama and all members of Congress reiterating its support for a public insurance option. You can read APHA’s letter on the APHA website.

APHA will continue to monitor the progress of the legislation and advocate to have the recommendations of its 2009 Agenda for Health Reform included in the legislation that moves through Congress this year.

You can view the agenda.

You can also view APHA’s position on the “public plan” option in health reform legislation.

You can send a message to your members of Congress urging them to pass comprehensive health reform legislation this year and urging them to include a public option in the legislation by visiting the APHA’s Advocacy site.

For additional resources, visit APHA’s Healthiest Nation in One Generation website.

Get Ready Fall 2009

Celebrate Get Ready Day and spread the preparedness message on Sept. 15

How prepared are you and your community for an emergency or disaster? APHA’s Get Ready Day, held annually on the third Tuesday in September, is raising awareness about community preparedness.

Bring the preparedness message to your community during Get Ready Day on Tuesday, Sept. 15, by holding an event. You'll find plenty of helpful free preparedness planning materials on the Get Ready fact sheet page, including fact sheets from our new Are You Ready? series. If you are not sure what sort of event to hold, check out the ideas and planning tips in our new Get Ready Event Guide or create preparedness games for kids with our Get Ready Games Guide.

September is National Preparedness Month so check out materials from that event as well.

If you hold a Get Ready activity, drop us a line and let us know. Check out the newly created APHA Get Ready calendar of events. We encourage you to submit your events as well as get ideas from others from this resource. We'd love to hear what you did! E-mail us at getready@apha.org.

September is National Food Safety Education Month

In honor of National Food Safety Education Month, arm yourself with information about food safety and learn more about food safety reform efforts. APHA is working with the Make Our Food Safe Campaign to encourage the Senate to take up Food Safety reform this fall. While the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749) that passed the House in July is a great step forward toward protecting our nation’s food supply, APHA favors the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) introduced by Senator Durbin as it includes these key provisions:

• build state and local capacity for foodborne illness detection, surveillance, laboratories and response;
• enhance CDC’s food surveillance, investigation and laboratory capacity; and
• improve coordination across the federal government, state and local governments and private institutions.

To learn more about APHA's Food Safety reform priorities, check out our Food Safety Factsheet at: http://www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/75E8CC5E-75E0-479D-9184-C06CF2182672/0/FoodSafetyFact.pdf.

The Make Our Food Safe Campaign website also has additional information on the Senate Food Safety reform legislation available at: http://www.makeourfoodsafe.org/.

Legislation Alerts Online

Please visit http://action.apha.org/site/PageNavigator/Advocacy to send a letter to your Congressional representatives urging their support for the APHA Agenda for Health Reform, adequately fund public health agencies and support public health in climate change legislation. Help APHA influence lawmakers to make public health a priority this year.