Health Care

My wife has pre existing conditions. Before the blessing that is Obamacare came along, because of those life altering pre existing  conditions, we were only able to afford a health insurance policy that had a $10,000 deductible at a very high monthly premium. She couldn't afford to see doctors regularly and her health deteriorated.  I remember counting the days to Obamacare and spending most of the night, and many frustrating days following, struggling to sign up, and once we did, the smile on my wife's face, the sigh of relief that she too can see a doctor, and there was hope. I remember tears of relief and hope. We celebrated the peace of mind this brought us with a hug, a smile and a good nights sleep.  Today, there are tears again, fear instead of hope, anxiety instead of peace of mind, worries and sleepless nights (it is 3:42 am as I write this).  I hear politicians exclaiming, speaking indignantly, waving their fists and wagging their tounges all preaching about what will happen when 25,000,000 get cut and have no insurance, the outcry there will be.....well, we are those 25,000,000, we are each a human being , not a number. You know us, we are your family member, your neighbor, your Uber driver, your friend, your classmate from years ago, your acquaintance of today.... STOP using our plights for political fodder and for so much fist waving and speechifying!  STOP being resigned to the fact that there are not enough Democrats in the  Senate to stop this lunacy and reach out to Republican Senators who are thinking individuals and STOP the insanity! Senators McConnel and Schumer, do the hard work that is your job and that you know how  to do so well and make it known that this end of Obamacare tragedy and travesty will NOT happen. Don't let us suffer with anxiety and sleepless nights and worse ! For my wife, who is asleep as I write this while I am up worrying about her health and healthcare, for all of us , each one of us, real people - not numbers, DON'T wait to see and hear the outcry when 25,000,000 are left without insurance! Do the hard work of bringing sanity back now.  Our health, and our healthcare is not, and should not be a partisan issue! DON'T LEAVE 25,000,000 PEOPLE WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS. SAVE OBAMACARE/ The Affordable Care Act! PS:  If you say there will be insurance available for those with pre existing conditions, you know that premiums  for those with any pre existing condition will  go back to being astronomically expensive and unaffordable and high risk pools are either unavailable, most don't meet criteria eligibility, and those that do see high costs and even higher deductibles.   

Thanks for coming here in Briggs's memory.  I tried for a year to get access to the immunotherapy she needed.  Just four days after I heard we finally had a chance, I lost her to complications brought on in what was meant to be a short emergency hospital stay.  It should never have been that close.  And no-one should ever have to go through all Briggs did.  Cancer disguises itself.  Immunotherapy either alerts the immune system to it or does such things as block the disguise.  The immunotherapeutic vaccine I'd been pursuing for Briggs had brought complete remissions in stage IV colorectal cancer.  Immunotherapy's a potential cure in all other solid-tumor cancers such as breast, lung, renal, and pancreatic.  The Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at University of California, Los Angeles has successfully used it in the usually incurable brain cancer that took Senator Ted Kennedy and, in 2015, Joe Biden's son Beau.  She has patients still cancer-free at over 10 years. In early 2016 an immunotherapy put President Jimmy Carter's stage IV melanoma into complete remission despite it having already spread to his liver and brain.  Development of it was led by a professor on this petition. Immunotherapy's also worked in acute leukemia.  In 2012 all treatment had failed with a 6-year-old girl at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  Her condition was terminal, but a test after 3 weeks showed no cancer.  60 Minutes later ran a story on it.  Memorial Sloan-Kettering has succeeded in adult leukemia. If you'd like to read more on immunotherapy, this article of mine about it and Briggs was featured by the Huffington Post and Stand Up to Cancer: 30 Stars and Doctors Sign the 'Petition for Briggs for Cancer Immunotherapy for All'. Former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos and his family have donated tens of millions to cancer centres for the development of immunotherapies.  Bill and Melinda Gates have invested in a company focused on them.  It takes anywhere from $350 million at a biotech to $5 billion at a major drug company to bring one new treatment to the market.  Tens of billions are needed from, among others, Congress. Please join us in calling for governments, the cancer industry, and cancer organizations to reorient the primary direction of funding, research, and treatment to the safest, most potentially curative immunotherapies in every cancer, and, notably, immunotherapeutic vaccines.  Not trials for trials' sake, which has too often been the case in the past with chemo, etc.  An overabundance of unwarranted trials only leads to lack of oversight and harm.  And in conjunction with that, to make information on immunotherapy routinely and widely available to patients and caregivers. (If you've read Briggs: Love, Cancer, and the Medical Profession, comments to build awareness would helpfully reach more people as a book review on the Amazon kindle/paperback page: www.Amazon.com/BRIGGS.  Only the latest show below.) Heartfelt thanks for signing in Briggs's memory, to begin changing this for others as she so wanted, and for anyone you know with cancer; I hope not a close loved one or you yourself. Paul _________________________________Join Rod Laver, Martina Navratilova, Nick Kyrgios & 10 squash greats in the Volleying Challenge for Briggs's Petition_________________________________I've begun a related petition to put Briggs's beautiful, smiling face on the cover of TIME to begin this new era.  40,000 people have signed so far: Put Briggs on the Cover of TIME._________________________________ Twitter: @BRIGGSsBook  

All Americans deserve equal and fair access to affordable health insurance.  Today, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has enabled more Americans access to insurance than ever before.  In fact, the number of uninsured Americans has dropped more than 6 percent since 2013.  Yet, the House, the Senate and President Trump want to completely replace the ACA or get rid of it (repeal it).  What could that mean for you? If you: Have A Pre-Existing Condition: You may not qualify for insurance or would have to pay a much higher premium. Earn A Lower Income: You may lose Medicaid coverage.  Have A Lapse In Coverage: You may be penalized for the gap in coverage (longer than 2 months). Have Insurance Through Your Employer: Penalties for employer provided coverage may be dropped. They will no longer have to provide insurance. Your out of pocket costs will increase. Are A Senior: You may pay a higher price for insurance. Receive Medicaid or other Subsidies: Funding may be reduced significantly forcing you to pay for those services instead. Completely replacing the ACA is not necessary. We need to keep the good parts and address what needs fixing. When your car has a check engine light on, do you take it the junkyard or do you take it to a repair shop?  It's the same thing here: Take the ACA to the repair shop and not the junkyard. Any solution should simplify and seek to reduce costs while maintaining and increasing benefits. Addressing Health Care Costs: Health insurance costs are still a challenge for many Americans and help is still needed there. Healthcare expenditures were projected to reach $3.2 trillion in 2015 - or about $10,000 per person (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2015).  So instead of looking to cut benefits, we must find other ways to cut expenses such as introducing "legitimate pricing" (full cost disclosure), which would result in an annual savings of 33% or $1 trillion.  And that would be a win for everyone. There are many more in "A Health Insurance Roadmap" including terminating employer health insurance ($250 billion savings) and reducing fraud (ranging from $68 billion to $320 billion).  Please sign my petition to ask the Senate for Fair Health Insurance For All! A Health Insurance Roadmap must be followed to provide a baseline of easy to understand and cohesive health insurance for all Americans. Then the next step is simplifying and standardizing all of the different types of health insurance out there.  Details can all be found in A Health Insurance Roadmap. The Senate needs to address these issues: Expansion of Medicare to Everyone: At some point all Americans go on Medicare either through age or disability.  Currently 15% of Americans are on Medicare.  The concept is simple: Medicare Part A is free and in place for most Americans (this includes hospital and facility care).  Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1995, all hospitals are required to treat individuals in need of emergency care. Medicare Part B, Preventative Services could be adjusted to match the ACA's Essential Benefits. Part D covers prescription drugs. Part C, Medicare Advantage allows private insurers to offer Medicare Parts A, B & D and is currently at 37% of new enrollees in Medicare and growing. Insurance companies also offer Medicare Supplement Plans.  Medicare is not going to go bankrupt. This is a common fallacy. The 2016 report of Medicare’s trustees finds that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund will remain solvent — that is, able to pay 100 percent of the costs of the hospital insurance coverage that Medicare provides — through 2028. Even in 2028, when the HI trust fund is projected for exhaustion, incoming payroll taxes and other revenue will still be sufficient to pay 87 percent of Medicare hospital insurance costs. The share of costs covered by dedicated revenues will decline slowly to 79 percent in 2040 and then rise gradually to 86 percent in 2090. The Medicare hospital insurance program will not run out of all financial resources and cease to operate after 2028, as the “bankruptcy” term may suggest. Medicare Part B & Part D cannot go bankrupt due the way they are funded through premiums and the Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust.   Medicaid Expansion Must Be Continued: Medicaid is the largest insurer with more than 70 million beneficiaries.  And more states are considering expansion (currently 31 states have already expanded Medicaid). A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2016, that looked at survey data for three states and found Medicaid expansion “was associated with significantly increased access to primary care,” as well as “fewer skipped medications due to cost,” among other factors. Pre-Existing Conditions: It is important that no one is left behind because of bad luck.  It is estimated that over 27% of Americans have pre-existing conditions and that 60% have a chronic medical condition.  Why should those with chronic illnesses that occur through no fault of their own be penalized?  My son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes last year at the age of 11. Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune virus, which happens randomly and for which there is no known clear cause. Type 1 Diabetes results in the Pancreas ceasing to work and create insulin. It is organ failure. Type 1 Diabetes is a 24/7 chronic illness that requires constant maintenance and expensive supplies. Even with the ACA, life is hard for many people with type 1 Diabetes as insurance companies make it difficult to get devices and supplies that allow them live.  Under the AHCA, anyone with Type 1 Diabetes or other chronic illness or cancer history or heart issues would most likely not ever be able to get health insurance except possibly through an employer.   Please sign your name if you agree that, now more than ever, we must move the senate to introduce a "Fair Health Insurance For All". The Bottom Line: What we are talking about here is beyond a luxury; it is necessity and a quality of life issue. This is neither a game nor a question of political party, this a matter of life and death for real people who are in our lives.  As a community, our collective voices can make a difference. Sign the petition to Senator Lamar Alexander (and other key senators) then share it. Thank you for taking the time to sign this petition to make sure that all Americans including you have Fair Health Care Insurance. We all deserve affordable health care. Check out A Health Insurance Roadmap for the full plan.

Expanding Medicaid in Alabama is essential to the health of our citizens and the economic viability of our state. Since passage of the ACA, Alabamians have paid $6 Billion in federal taxes for expanded health care access in the United States. Not in Alabama though. For seven years, our elected leaders have put their political ideologies ahead of the health of our families.  Alabama already ranks at or near the bottom for infant mortality, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, just to name a few. Every poor health measure experienced by Alabamians would improve from greater access to insurance and care. Reclaiming the federal tax dollars we are paying will cover up to 300,000 Alabamians, more than half of whom work full-time in low wage jobs. Eighty percent of Alabama’s hospitals are operating in the red. Rural hospitals and clinics are closing in Alabama at an alarming rate, including J. Paul Jones Hospital in Camden, the hometown of Governor Kay Ivey. Expanding Medicaid would bring desperately needed revenues for hospitals that serve the poorest, most rural counties. For the long term security of Alabama's health care system and our workforce, Medicaid expansion is the answer.For more information about the benefits, go to alabamasbest.org.