Advocacy

Advocacy

AAFA-STL staff, Policy Committee and community partners work tirelessly to advocate for health policy issues that affect those we serve.  Our robust advocacy efforts have garnered national attention, with two bills passed into law in the State of Missouri in 2012 and 2015.  Please contact us if there is a relevant policy issue you’d like to discuss.

Recent Legislation

SUCCESS!  MO HB 11.528 – AAFA-STL was instrumental in pushing this budget bill through the State Legislature & Office of Administration in 2014/2015.  This bill allows for qualified practitioners in the State to provide and be reimbursed for providing asthma education and home assessments to high-risk children with severe asthma.  Missouri is the first state in the country to pass legislation of this nature!

SUCCESS! MO HB 1188 – AAFA-STL diligently worked to get this bill passed in the 2012 session.  HB 1188 allows a school nurse or other trained employee to administer asthma-related rescue medication to a student experiencing an asthma attack. AAFA supports this bill.

SUCCESS! MO HB 922 – Requires each school district to adopt a policy on allergy prevention and response with priority given to addressing potentially deadly food-borne allergies.

Pseudoephedrine Issue

In addition to the bills we are working on, AAFA-STL is very involved in the local pseudoephedrine (PSE) issue.  PSE is an ingredient in many common over-the-counter cold and allergy medications such as Sudafed, Advil Cold & Sinus and Claritin D.  Unfortunately, it is also a key component in the manufacturing of meth, a drug which has become a huge problem in Missouri and nationwide.   Local lawmakers in Missouri and the St. Louis area are considering legislation that would require a doctor’s prescription to obtain these medications. We staunchly oppose these measures because they would lead to significant burdens for patients and their families, including increased healthcare and fuel costs, long wait times at the doctor’s office and lost wages due to time off work.  We also represent the many St. Louisans who cannot afford health insurance and so in areas where this new requirement passes, it will be even harder for them to get the medicines they need.

Instead, an effective alternative entails enforcing Federal purchase laws through a real-time, stop-sale system.  For about a year, Missouri has been participating in the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx), an electronic technology that tells clerks in a retail store or pharmacy if a person is attempting to purchase a product containing PSE that exceeds the legal limit and immediately blocks the sale.  Furthermore, information on sales and attempted sales are collected for law enforcement to prosecute criminals using these reliable medications containing PSE to illegally make and distribute meth.  In the short time that the real-time, stop-sale system has been up and running in Missouri, it has blocked thousands of illegal sales each month.  This law enforcement-focused approach is a much more reasonable and appropriate approach to the meth problem in our state.  The NPLEx system is the only real-time, stop sale solution that also maintains consumer access to safe and effective cold and allergy medicines containing PSE.