The Men's Health Act is a Valentine's Day gift for both men and women. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill introduced legislation today calling for the creation of a federal Office of Men's Health to promote research and education about diseases affecting American men. As a result, they said, men's overall life expectancy has gone from being equal to women's in 1920 to being more than 6 years shorter today. The bill calls for an office within the Department of Health and Human Services coordinate the fragmented men's health awareness, prevention, and research efforts now being conducted by federal and state government. An Office of Men's Health, styled after the Office of Women's Health, will be well placed to coordinate outreach and awareness efforts on the federal and state levels, promote preventative health behaviors, and provide a vehicle whereby researchers on men's health can network and share information and findings.
Prostate cancer is chief among the diseases concerned.
That disease killed 32,000 American men last year, according to the National Bureau of Health Statistics. Both Congressmen stressed that the creation of an Office of Men's Health would not impinge on the funding or the status for the Office of Women's Health, which was created in 1990. The bill garnered the support of the National Medical Association, which represents some 25,000 African American doctors across the country. Cunningham introduced similar legislation last year, only to have it stall before it could reach a vote. He blamed last year's lack of support on election year politics, adding that the roster of Congressional supporters the bill has garnered from across the political spectrum would help it pass during the 107th Congress.