{month} {day}, 2009


Hon. {representative full name}
{office number} {building name} House Office Building
Washington, DC {zip}

Dear Mr./Ms. {last name},

On March 19, 2009, doctors, researchers and patients met with Senate healthcare staffers on the first Liver Capitol Hill Day to raise awareness of the needs of liver disease patients.

As a liver disease patient, I cannot stress enough the importance of Congress taking measures now to stop the coming epidemic of liver diseases: viral hepatitis, fatty liver disease and liver cancer rates are all increasing alarmingly. Considering millions of Americans unknowingly suffer from these conditions, and that for many the only cure will be liver transplant followed by a lifetime of immunosuppression therapy, the cost of screening and preventing these conditions will be far more economical in the long run.

I urge you to support the following funding levels in the FY2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill:

• Increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by 10%, enabling greater implementation of the recommendations in the Action Plan for Liver Disease Research adopted by the NIH in 2004. This will also help to avoid a large decrease in NIH research funding after the distribution of ARRA funding.



• Increase funding to $50M for the Division of Viral Hepatitis in the CDC resulting in direct services to patients. The incidence of primary liver cancer is growing at the fastest rate of all cancers in the USA, and it is one of the most deadly. Most cases of liver cancer result from chronic viral hepatitis. Five to six million Americans are infected with viral hepatitis - and most will not learn until it is too late.



• Increase AHRQ funding by $32M to $405 million in FY2010. Advancing evidence-based medicine is not only critical to patients and providers, but also to policymakers to assure decisions are made with the best possible information.