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What do you think is the most effective way to turn this idea into real policy? Add your suggestions here for how you think we should run an advocacy campaign to advance the idea – including the overall strategy, messaging, targets, and tactics.

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  1. Jean Keller

    I think to appoint the ex Gov of Iowa, Mr. Vilsack, to be Secretary of Agriculture, would be a BIG mistake. I have read that he has close ties to the chemical companies, especially Monsanto Co. who sells dead seeds. The next year the dead seeds have to be bought again, which makes a big prifit for Monsanto Co. (Dead seeds, dead people.)

    Jean Keller

    Suggested by Jean Keller on 01/24/2009 @ 06:15PM PT

  2. Jorge Perez-Albela

    I'm very optimistic to see how much awareness and attention this extremely important issue is getting. We need to be heard. We want true change. The number of people that knows how the system has been operating is growing and we demand change. We want a society built around TRUE values of respect, honesty and mutual support. A society that knows that whatever we do to our neighbor we are doing to ourselves; a society that embraces all of its individuals.
    For the first time in US history, 1 in every 100 Adults is in jail or prison; that is about 2.3 million of our brothers and sisters (source: Sojourners magazine). I believe, part of the cause of this sad reality is the way our society has been functioning or "dysfunctioning"- our values.
    Aren't we all a big family of Americans? Are we taking care of each other? Or are we abusing some of our brothers and sisters and creating more poverty, misery, abandonment, sickness, ignorance, etc. All that is a nest for crime and wasted lives.

    What are the values that dictate our actions? Money, power, greed, profit? And at what expense?
    We need to start from the bottom up, questioning the motives of our actions. Starting within, then with our spouses, children, families, friends, coworkers, clients, community, country, our planet and the whole world. We are responsible for each other.

    Focusing more on the actual topic of health freedom, a concrete idea would be to legally demand full disclosure of every procedure and every medication a doctor orders, with full disclosure of all of the charges; then each individual should be able to shop around and compare.Also, there should be regulation on how much can be charged on specific procedures and medications. Especially when most of the time none of these costs are disclosed upfront. It is like going to a restaurant to get a sandwich and at the end of the night getting the bill with a charge from the chef, from the waiter, from the guy cleaning the dishes, a separate charge for renting the room where you are eating, an absurd charge for a napkin, another for renting the utensils and a separate charge from the restaurant itself. You would end up paying something like 300% more than the actual cost. How would you react? This actually happens in our health care system, in our legal system, etc. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The government should protect us.

    Again, it all starts from our motives and values, from the bottom up, from the inside to the outside. Mr. President, we now have an opportunity for real change. Is it really going to happen?

    Jorge Perez-Albela
    Artist, Educator.

    Suggested by Jorge Perez-Albela on 01/24/2009 @ 08:10AM PT

  3. Charles Weber

           I feel a tax should be levied on any food that has known poisons added such as aluminum, aspartame, fluoride (see http://charles_w.tripod.com/fluoride.html ), sulfite, and etc. or essential nutrients subtracted. I am certain this would cause an improvement in our country’s health when processors corrected the situation or, if not, when less of it was purchased. If a tax were placed on food that has had essential nutrients removed the improvement in health would be dramatic. A fringe benefit would be to enable the heavy Medicare tax to be reduced or eliminated. If everyone is getting good food most diseases would disappear and we could then devote our research to the few remaining. Perhaps you can use your influence to get such a law passed.      We talk endlessly about better health insurance. Insurance is a marvelous invention, but there is no excellent substitute for not getting sick in the first place. In any case, if everyone is healthy, the insurance premiums will go a way down as a side effect no matter how they are instituted. With the extra money we could then start to pay down that miserable national debt and with the extra time, enjoy ourselves (say with a shorter work day).      In the mean time, you can at least see ways that you or some one you love who has rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, or high blood pressure can counter the loss of potassium from current junk food in this article and its links http://charles_w.tripod.com/arthritis9.html   . This would have a much more advantageous affect on high blood pressure than reducing sodium. Indeed it is not the sodium that is causing the high blood pressure anyway, but the chloride associated with it, since potassium chloride increases blood pressure and sodium bicarbonate does not.        Sincerely,  Charles Weber, MS, isoptera at mchsi.com

    Suggested by Charles Weber on 01/24/2009 @ 03:11AM PT

  4. Sandra Fields

    A separate government agency should be set up to research the safety and effetiveness of all pharmaceuticals prior to release.
    Currently, the research is done by the pharmaceutical companies themselves, which not only drives up the cost, but also amounts to the fox watching the chicken coop. Much of the research money is diverted to marketing and advertising.

    Increase funding to the FDA to hire more investigaters. Strengthen the safety criteria necessary to market pharmaceuticals.

    Stop or limit the television advertising of pharmaceuticals.
    Require the pharmaceutical companies to balance their advertising with PSAs about disease prevention.

    Mandate freedom of choice in selecting healthcare providers to health insurers.

    Require professional licensing boards to include non-medical consumer advocates.

    Allow freedom of choice in selecting insurance coverage, forcing competition amoung carriers to be more responsive to consumer needs.

    Require plain English insurance contracts enabling the public to fully inderstand the terms of their coverage.

    Establish no-fault liability coverage in healthcare. This will significantly reduce the cost (33% attorney fees) of healthcare, just as it did for personal injury auto insurance.

    Promote the use and insurance coverage of clinical thermography to detect the earliest stages of disease, where simple dietary and lifestyle changes have their biggest impact.

    Suggested by Sandra Fields on 01/22/2009 @ 11:32AM PT

  5. Jeffrey Acton

    I have found a solution to counterattack the -- Federal National Health Care System proposal -- witch would amount to an exponential EXPLOSION of what we already have in the status-quo; Medical Fascism. I certainly will not subsidize the IDIOCY of [mitigating disease] with Pharma drugs./ Providing aid to the enemy. I realize that poor people don't have the mis-named "health insurance". This Abominable paradigm is what we have to um [change].
    http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/78

      "You will have to pay for this monopolistic system, whether you like it or not. The price you pay, and the kind of care you receive, will be determined by government dictates, crafted behind closed doors, in consultation with powerful corporate interests."

    In the [personal comment box] you can say something like. Because I want natural healing providers, not man made chemical disease mitigators.
    [large % petrochemical -- kills your telomerase(s) ] -- In other words, petrochemicals shorten your life - duh?! 
    _____________________________________________________

    Second solution : At least you can keep most of your money, if forced to pass; and be sure to leave your comment about true "free market competition" -- I want natural healing providers, not man made chemical disease mitigators.

    http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/90
     

    Suggested by Jeffrey Acton on 01/21/2009 @ 08:34PM PT

  6. Victoria V

    Here is a minimal list of steps needed to make a difference in this matter. Hope it covers most health freedom related issues:

    1) Clearly and completely label all GMOs and products derived from GM and cloned animals. Repeal and disallow any future patents of live organisms, sich as bacteria, plants, etc. Impose severe criminal penalties and fines on companies (and the farmers who use them), whose GM/cloned plants/organisms/anmals unintentionally disperse by cross-polination or accidental cross-breeding with the plants/organisms/animals of the neighboring farms. Create legislation for immediate reimbursement for the losses of crops/animals to those farmers who found unwanted GM/cloned plants/organisms/animals in their fields or on their property.

    2) Clearly and completely label all irradiated and otherwise chemically treated products.

    3) Stop NAIS, so the small farmers and homesteaders can continue producing healthy food. This program should be strictly voluntary, including any databases for keeping track of animal owners that do not want to be kept track of, it is surveillance and is unconstitutional.

    4) Enact legislation to once and for all prohibit any microchipping of any animals or humans that's not expressly voluntary, with a written consent.

    5) Make all vaccinations/newborn Vitamin K and eye treatments, and tuberculosis (if there are no TB symptoms) testing optional, provided the patient is well informed by the physician, with no coersion, including in the schools, the military, immigrants, and in the workplace. If this is not possible, provide for a universal, country-wide consciencious/philosophical exemption for all, no questions asked. Educate the patient on ALL possible side-effects before injecting them. If an unvaccinated person is found to have one of the preventable diseases, they should be educated and quarantined in their home to protect the public, and reauired to strictly avoid public places for the duration that their disease is contageous to the public. If they do not comply, they may be fined.

    6) Make all medical treatments, including psychiatric and cancer treatments voluntary and only with clearly expressed consent, no strings attached, no coersion.

    7) Make drug and vaccine producing companies, as well as the physicians administering those liable for any damages these treatments may inflict. Allow the patients sue the manufacturers as well as the practicioners personally, in regular courts, in individual, independent cases if they wish to do so. This will make the manufacturers test their drugs/vaccines for safety more carefully, and make the physicians educate themselves and think twice before they administer those.

    8) Stop disease fearmongering and propaganda in the media - the numbers quoted for mortality and morbidity of most diseases are skewed. Please provide the correct information, so the public can make truly informed choices.

    9) Stop advertisement of medical drugs/vaccines in the media.

    10) Allow the patients to make informed decisions about their care and decline either the whole treatment or any part of it if they wish so, without any physician being able to refuse to continue treating the patient with other means, without any coersion and without insurance penalties. This should include any disease, even cancer and psychiatric.

    11) Any attempts at coersion of patients, their guardians, or parents to submit to any treatment, if they have made an informed decision not to (including threats, reports to Social Services and investigations by Social Services, removal of the patient/child from their guardian's/parent's care, refusal to continue treatment, refusal to discharge from a health care facility, insurance penalties, etc.) should be made a criminal offence and should be punished as such, as these actions are unconstitutional.

    12) Require that all medical drugs, medical devices and vaccines be extensively tested over a period of several years, not days, and proven to be safe beyond doubt, before they are relesed into use. The results of testing should first be approved through a review by independent specialists, without any FDA/CDC oversight, without any ties to the manufacturer and with no conflict of interests. These specialists can be hired with some portion of federal taxes or by the disease-specific foundations/organizations, etc.

    13) Create a publicly-accessible, unlimited access, unrestricted database to include all drugs, vaccinations, medical devices in use, with every bit of testing documentation, approval documentation, any correspondence on every item, the approval documents with the names of the FDA officials approving them, and any documentation created after the item was released for use, to include all reports of adverse effects, litigations, etc. All should be kept current and accessible to the public. Any failure to submit documents into the database should be punished by severe fines.

    14) Create a new comprehensive and easy to use database for adverse effects, to include all medical drugs, devices, and vaccines and make reporting of those events mandatory by all health care providers and manufacturers. Enforce a mandatory follow-up by the health care practicioners of the events until clear conclusions are drawn on the nature and the course of each event. Any failure to report such events should be punishable by severe fines.The funds from these fines can be included in funding such database. Any information gathered should be widely accessible to the public, without any restriction. The information gathered should be used for surveillance of the safety of the medications, medical devices and vaccines. Any clusters of serious, life-threatening, or injury-inducing side-effects should be followed up on by the FDA and the manufacturers immediately. Any failure to react to these in a timely manner should be punishable as a criminal offence, with most severe consequences to the individuals, companies, and agencies involved. Any such clustering of severe side-effects should be immediately reported by the media, so the patients could protect themselves, even before the manufacturers can investigate and take action. Create a hotline for reports of healthcare providers' non-compliance with this.

    15) Create a federal legislation that would be above all state legislations regarding any health information databases. Any database created to include or track health care records, prescription drug use, vaccinations, and any biological information, such as DNA, and specific patients' diseases should only be used with experssed written consent of the patients or their guardians. Any healthcare provider, government official, pharmacist, or any other person entering such information into any such database without patient's written consent should be prosecuted as a criminal, and should be allowed to be sued by the patient/guardian for any damages resulting from such violation of privacy. Any unconsented surveillance of this sort and any such actions are unconstitutional and should not be allowed.

    16) Disallow FDA from regulating any functional foods, natural supplements, alternative medicine devices, and treatments. Any damages the patients experience with those can be taken directly with the manufacturers and the providers of such treatments. Patients should be allowed to take these to regular courts, case by case if they wish.

    17) Provide for severe criminal penalties to those involved in a conflict of interests as related to the FDA, CDC, and the manufacturers of any medical drugs and devices and large scale food manufacturers, and the USDA, and the large scale farmers. Create a special taskforce to find and investigate any such relations within those. All involved should face criminal penalties and disallowed to work in the FDA/USDA in the future. Severe fines should be imposed on the manufacturers/farmers, and the responsible persons should be persecuted as well. All this should be made public and covered by the media. Disallow and lobbying of any government agency, official, FDA, USDA, CDC, and any monetary or otherwise contributions to election campaigns for all levels of government, by the large scale pharmaceutical and food companies, large scale farms, and anyone related to those in some way. Impose criminal penalties for non-compliance.

    18) Grants should be provided for independent natural care providers to research natural remedies worldwide and publish the results of such research.

    19) Insurance companies should be required to pay for alternative treatments, including herbal, homeopathy, massage, etc.

    20) Allow women deliver their children any way they want to, including in their home, and unassisted. Women all over the world have successfully done this for ages. Childbirth is not a medical condition and therefore does not require treatment. Stop threatening, coercing and otherwise intimidating women into delivering in the hospitals. If independent midwifery was encouraged throughout the country, every woman wanting to deliver at home would have an experienced and knowledgable assistant to help with home delivery, and in case of unforseen complications.

    21) No person or agency should ever have the power to medicate or vaccinate any person against their will and without a written consent, in the event of any emergency, pandemic, terrorist threat, etc. This is unethical and grossly unconstutional.

    Suggested by Victoria V on 01/21/2009 @ 02:10PM PT

  7. Tina Minkowitz

    Here is a good article for information about players involved with electronic health records:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/us/politics/18health.html?_r=2

    Suggest that anyone here in a position to do meaningful lobbying may find the article useful.  It would also be good to know more about the "privacy protections" that some legislators are advocating - is it just HIPAA (which is bad) or something stronger?  As I suspected, the insurance companies are the main force behind the demolition of privacy.

    Tina Minkowitz

    Suggested by Tina Minkowitz on 01/21/2009 @ 08:16AM PT

  8. Tina Minkowitz

    I'd just like to ask what is going to be done with these suggestions and how they can be worked with.  While I'm happy that health freedom was in the top ten ideas and posted a suggestion of my own a few days ago, it's not clear to me where we are going. 
    Also not clear the relationship of this with the material on change.gov - and I think a lot of people are confused.
    Not sure if this is the right place to put this comment, but I can't figure out anywhere else.
    Tina Minkowitz, Esq.

    Suggested by Tina Minkowitz on 01/21/2009 @ 06:36AM PT

  9. Gay Hosmer

    This one change is critical to our future.  Several of the others in the list are good changes that need to be attended to, but the right to get foods that are clean, whole, organic without GM, chemical additions, etc. will determine whether our nation continues the obesity epidemic and general ill health in aging years.  Our health budget (even a new single payor system) will be strained by the diet supported frailties and degeneration of aging.  A corollary of this is the need to get all foods and supplements out from under FDA.  It is corrupt and responding to the profit needs of big business instead of securing our pure foods.  I, for one, believe they who are associated with big business, getting a financial gain by making decisions which hurt the population, should be tried and sentenced for treason.  But I think the same about much of the Bush administration.

    Suggested by Gay Hosmer on 01/20/2009 @ 12:36PM PT

  10. Allan Berggren

    Bring in retirees in some way.
         If access is improved in any way, provider supply will be critical.  I hope we can find ways for retirees like myself can be brought back in some role to help provide needed services.

    Allan Berggren, M.D. retired ear, nose, throat surgeon.
    Claremont, NH

    Suggested by Allan Berggren on 01/20/2009 @ 11:05AM PT

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