Klobuchar, Franken, Harkin Introduce Bill to Confront Eating Disorders in the U.S.

Press Release

Klobuchar, Franken, Harkin Introduce Bill to Confront Eating Disorders in the U.S.

At a press conference yesterday, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced legislation aimed at fighting and preventing eating disorders with Kitty Westin, a Minnesota eating disorder awareness advocate. U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) is also an original cosponsor of the bill. The Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act is the first comprehensive legislative effort introduced in the Senate to confront the seriousness of these diseases. The bill would jump-start research as well as improve the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.

"The statistics on young people struggling with eating disorders are staggering," said Klobuchar. "We must provide better resources for prevention and treatment to ensure that everyone has access to the help they need to treat and survive these often fatal diseases. I want to thank the Westin family for their tireless efforts to raise awareness of the need to combat these diseases."

"I hear far too often from Minnesotans who have dealt personally with a loved one who suffers from an eating disorder. The fact is, we don't know nearly enough about diagnosing, treating, and preventing these diseases. Today's legislation is a major step forward in understanding eating disorders and how to stop them from destroying lives," said Franken.

"Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are widespread, insidious and too often fatal diseases. And adolescent women are by no means the only people suffering from eating disorders; these diseases don't discriminate by gender, race, income or age," said Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "Sadly, these diseases touch the lives of so many of our families and friends. Nearly half of all Americans personally know someone with an eating disorder. We have got to do a better job at the federal level of investing in research, treatment and prevention and the FREED Act is a major step in the right direction."

Kitty Westin, an eating disorder awareness advocate from Minnesota, also attended the announcement. "It's been 10 years since anorexia killed my daughter Anna. And eating disorders have killed thousands of Americans since then," said Westin. "It's time for Congress to pass FREED as a critical first step in addressing this national emergency."

The FREED Act expands federal research, improves tracking and recording of the actual numbers of people suffering and dying from these diseases, provides training for a wide array of health professionals and educators to better identify and screen for eating disorders, creates a new patient advocacy program to help patients get proper care, authorizes grants for eating disorder prevention programs and builds on the mental health parity and health care reform bills to improve access to treatment, particularly for teens covered by Medicaid.

It is estimated that at least 5 million Americans suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders. Because eating disorders so often go undiagnosed and untreated, the actual number of Americans suffering from eating disorders is closer to 11 million. Tremendous misperceptions about the severity of eating disorders impact the federal resources devoted to eating disorders. Federal research dollars for eating disorders lag behind research of other diseases when measured by either the number of people affected or by the relative health consequences of eating disorders.

Senator Klobuchar is a chair of Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Children's Health and Senator Franken is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

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