A vote for AB1478 is a vote for freedom of choice in medical care.

AB1478 Is good for our health and well being.  It will reduce health care costs and health insurance premiums, making health insurance more affordable to more people.

AB1478 requires physicians to give their patients who have heart disease or diabetes the right to be referred out for intensive dietary and lifestyle medical care, instead of enduring a lifetime of drugs or surgery, which only suppressive the symptoms of disease and do not cure the disease or restore the health of the patient.

It is time that the practice of medicine came into line with advancing scientific and medical findings.  Over the last two decades more than 28 medical studies have demonstrated that bypass surgery and angioplasty do not provide real life benefits to 70 to 90 percent of the patients who receive them.  Except for a minority of patients these procedures do not prolong life or prevent heart attacks.  80 percent of these costly procedures are unnecessary, driving up health care costs.

Every year about 44,800 bypass surgeries are performed in California. 80 percent of these patients experience cognitive difficulties.  Up to 5% (2,240) of bypass patients die. Repeat bypass surgery has a 15 to 20 percent death rate.  Every year about 131,400 angioplasties are done in California.  25% of these angioplasties fail. Recent studies show that balloon angioplasty and stent placements actually increase the patient’s risk of death from heart attack.  Heart disease costs California $48.36 billion annually, Medi-Cal’s share being $8.22 billion. Scientific and medical studies show that diet/ lifestyle changes result in a 91% reduction in chest pain, the main reason for heart surgery.

The statistics for diabetes is just as grim.  It costs California $36 billion annually, with Medi-Cal’s share being $6.12 billion.  And what benefit does the diabetic get for this cost? Very little. Major studies in the last 13 years show that controlling blood sugar aggressively does not result in better long term results for the patient. Rather the studies show more weight gain, higher cholesterol, hight triglycerides, increased blood pressure, and more heart disease, stroke and death.  The long term out come for the diabetic is blindness, kidney failure and dialysis, nerve damage and amputations, weight gain, stroke and heart disease. Again, scientific and medical studies show that diet/lifestyle changes control blood sugar levels better and can even reverse diabetes.

Over 2 million Californians have diabetes. 32.8 % of males and 38.5% of females born in 2000 and after, will develop diabetes and have a lifespan of about 57 years - 11 to 14 years shorter than the average population. Type-2 diabetics is more frequently found in Hispanic/Latino Americans (17.9%) and Black Americans (20.5%) than whites (8.3%).  

Support AB1478 by calling your state representatives and ask them to support this bill.