SB 852 Must Award Damages Commensurate with Costs, Compensate Victims Swiftly and Increase Medical Research Funding for Asbestos-Related Cancers

Dear Senator «Last»:

We are an alliance of doctors and patients, brought together by our mission to defeat mesothelioma as a life-ending disease. Mesothelioma is a fatal tumor that generally develops 20-40 years after exposure to asbestos. We are intimately familiar with the financial, medical, physical and psychological hardships to which mesothelioma patients and their families are subjected.

As discussed in detail in the attached policy paper, we believe SB 852 as drafted contains serious flaws that should be rectified.

The $1.1 million cap is insufficient to meet the medical, hospital, travel, lodging and other costs of mesothelioma patients who pursue the best treatments, which include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of therapies. Moreover, it is insufficient to address the ongoing medical costs of patients who survive long enough to outlive the median survival time but who remain disabled and unable to earn a living. The bill therefore discriminates against early stage, usually younger, patients whose life-long medical costs are certain to exceed the $1.1 million cap.

We are also concerned that the bill does not realistically insure that the asbestos trust fund will be financially able to swiftly compensate the sickest of the sick. In order to beat the grim survival odds, mesothelioma patients, especially the uninsured, will need to have the financial means to pursue and afford novel and sometimes radical treatment options. Many patients, faced with the financial and medical hardships, may simply opt for palliative treatments.

Finally, while we applaud the government's recognition of the need to jointly fund with industry a comprehensive mesothelioma treatment and research program, we are deeply concerned about the levels of the funding as well as the commitment. Mesothelioma research has long been neglected, even though about one-third of the patients contracted their asbestos exposure while serving in the U.S. Navy. Moreover, we are concerned that unless key senators take the proper steps to appropriate the federal dollars to the National Institutes of Health, the program will exist on paper only as yet another federal "unfunded mandate."

We are encouraged by the effort to globally compensate victims of asbestos exposure and provide long overdue research funding for this neglected, orphan asbestos-related cancer. However, we remain seriously concerned about whether the legislation, as drafted, will fairly and timely compensate mesothelioma patients and provide the best hope through research. At a minimum, the Fund should allow seriously injured "hardship" claimants to present evidence of their economic and medical losses and award damages accordingly.

Respectfully,

The Doctor-Patient Alliance for Responsible Asbestos Cancer Policy

This letter was signed by 34 surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, pulmonary or other medical doctors who specialize in treating and diagnosing mesothelioma patients nationwide.

Over 11,800 U.S. Citizens have signed the petition calling on our federal government to fund a mesothelioma research and treatment program. www.marf.org.

The attached policy paper can be viewed on the web at www.phlbi.org.

Enclosure