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Gov. Tim Kaine
at EVMS:
Virginians need better access to health care
March 1, 2007
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Flanked by President Harry Lester and Dr. Alfred
Ahuhamad, Kaine speaks about the importance of access to health care |
NORFOLK—Governor Tim Kaine, during a visit to EVMS on March 1, proposed improving
access to health care for the uninsured and for pregnant mothers and praised
EVMS efforts that have helped enroll more than 18,000 patients in
state-sponsored programs for the uninsured since 2000.
Speaking to a standing-room-only audience of doctors, medical students, mayors, state delegates, senators and
other dignitaries, Kaine also said he hoped to increase funding for the Family
Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS) program.
Alfred Abuhamad, M.D. chairman of
obstetrics and gynecology, who spoke before Kaine, highlighted the role of EVMS
in improving health in the community, both of the insured and of the
disadvantaged.
A decade ago, Abuhamad noted,
Hampton Roads had one of the nation’s highest rates of transmission of AIDS from
mothers to their children. Thanks to research and concerted community efforts,
the transmission rate of AIDS “from mothers to babies in Hampton Roads is less
than two percent,” he said.
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Dr. Don Lewis recounts EVMS successes in
improving the health of the disadvantaged |
Donald Lewis, M.D., chairman of
pediatrics, notes that a study spearheaded by an EVMS researcher David Matson,
M.D., Ph.D., resulted in swift FDA approval of a vaccine that can prevent
500,000 infant deaths in the developing world each year. That study cited as one
of the best of “700,000 published on this planet” in 2006, Lewis said.
Just as important have been EVMS
community outreach efforts in place since 2000 that have resulted in steering
18,000 mothers and children to programs such as FAMIS.
Kaine’s speech focused on a
paradox, the fact that Virginia ranks toward the top nationally in employment,
income and education, but toward the bottom in measures of health care.
“Infant mortality, we’re 32nd in
the United States,” Kaine said. “Obesity rates among adults and youngsters
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we’re in the bottom half of the United States. The number of Virginians without
health insurance, over a million. We’re not the leaders; we’re in the back half
of American states.”
Improving the health of Virginians
has been a central priority of Kaine’s administration.
Declaring that “we have the
brainpower and we have the institutions and we have the trained professionals so
we can improve,” Kaine called for concerted efforts to improve access to health
care immediately and to work toward solving looming long-term health problems
such as obesity at the same time.
He also made it clear that the
presence of EVMS has improved health care in the region immeasurably.
“Where would health care in
Hampton Roads be if it weren’t for EVMS?” Kaine asked. “It’s a frightening thing
to contemplate.” |
