0001|                       HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 95
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0002|     43rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 1997
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0003|                            INTRODUCED BY
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0004|                          PATSY G. TRUJILLO
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0005|     
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0006|                                   
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0007|     
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0008|     
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0009|     
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0010|                           A JOINT MEMORIAL
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0011|     REQUESTING THE INTERIM LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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0012|     COMMITTEE TO ASSESS THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION TO ADDRESS THE
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0013|     PREVENTION, DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF OSTEOPOROSIS.
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0014|          
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0015|          WHEREAS, approximately twenty-five million Americans,
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0016|     twenty million of them women, have or are at risk of getting
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0017|     osteoporosis, a disease characterized by thinning of the bones
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0018|     so that they are prone to fracture; and
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0019|          WHEREAS, osteoporosis is the cause of about one million
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0020|     three hundred thousand broken bones each year in the United
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0021|     States; and
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0022|          WHEREAS, the disease costs Americans ten billion dollars
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0023|     ($10,000,000,000) a year, more than congestive heart failure at
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0024|     seven billion five hundred million dollars ($7,500,000,000) or
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0025|     asthma at six billion two hundred million dollars
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0001|     ($6,200,000,000); and 
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0002|          WHEREAS, a new model derived from the American society of
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0003|     bone and mineral research, which uses United States census data
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0004|     and estimates fracture risk from epidemiological data, predicts
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0005|     that the cost of osteoporosis-related fractures in New Mexico
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0006|     will rise by more than twenty-one percent by the year 2015 and
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0007|     the annual cost to New Mexico's health care system will rise
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0008|     from twenty-six million dollars ($26,000,000) in 1995 to one
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0009|     hundred twenty-one million dollars ($121,000,000) in 2015; and
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0010|          WHEREAS, osteoporosis is not part of normal aging and
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0011|     should not be ignored; and
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0012|          WHEREAS, the only way to eradicate the disease of
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0013|     osteoporosis is through research, education and advocacy; and
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0014|          WHEREAS, the national osteoporosis foundation has a number
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0015|     of campaigns under way to educate Americans about the risk
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0016|     factors associated with this disease;
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0017|          NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
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0018|     STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the interim legislative health and
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0019|     human services committee be requested to review the model bills
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0020|     developed by the national osteoporosis foundation to assess
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0021|     whether to introduce legislation to address the prevention,
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0022|     diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis by passing education,
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0023|     bone density testing or task force legislation; and
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0024|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
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0025|     transmitted to the chairman of the interim legislative health
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0001|     and human services committee and the New Mexico legislative
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0002|     council.
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0003|                              
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