Lets draft a letter to Washington

Does anyone know if these letters are "only" being sent to the White House?  I was able to access the blog address from this thread and read what was on the samples.  Seems like everything is focused on writing to the President. 

I guess I'll keep a watch on this thread to see if more letters get put on.  

carol57:  Good thinking, imo.  I have gotten more replies from the Speaker than any one else.   I think I'll join you and be sure to include him in my own.  Carol, for any one else who wants to write to Speaker John Boehner following is his snail mail address:

Office of the Speaker

H-232  The Capitol

Washington, DC 20515

or you can email him from his form on:   www.speaker.gov

As a Canadian I can't participate, but I support you every step of the way. The financial problems that you have don't apply here in Canada because it's all paid for by the government, but many of the other problems do.  We can get involved in long waiting lists, and we're waiting for a cure just as you are. I wasn't kept waiting too long, but some people in my family have had problems.  Both our healthcare system and yours stand very much in need of improvement.

VJSLB:  Thanks for the post!  It gives me hope that this group, along with others, will have the power needed to make sure that a new party or President does not destroy the good in the Affordable Care Act.  It is true that a lot of it is not good but much of it is very needed so I need to know our government, no matter who is President, will take our concerns seriously and help us to keep the good in the Affordable Care Act. 

I care deeply about research but without having access to the necessary insurance, the treatments which can help us survive may not be affordable to many.  So my quest is twofold, research and medical insurance.  May we be able to get both so more lives can be saved and others prevented from ever getting this disease from Hell!

Merilee - you might want to look up www.change.org as that is a petition page that goes everywhere.  It is really simple to set something up - they send it out via email and people just have to click if they agree.  It is amazing how quickly they can get a ton of signatures.

In addition they have a mass mailing list that will include those people that are not on BCO.org.

Just a thought.

Medigal - I was suggesting this as a second means to accomplishing what we want as a group.  This information (petitions) go out all over the US, etc.  I hear of cases in other states and then I see how many signatures they have collected and we are talking thousands and thousands and thousands.  The news media even picked up on a couple of cases due to the amount of signatures they had against a particular case in such a very short time. 

I have hesitated for weeks to post this information - why I don't know other than I didn't want to step on anybodies toes.  This would be in addition to the letter writing campaign and where you would hear from so many people - women that don't have breast cancer but has had a relative that has died from BC  or is undergoing treatments for BC.  There are so many family members - immediate and extended family that BC has impacted.  Those are the people you can get hold of using www.change.org

Medigal---the 6 months without insurance will change in 2014. It is only for right now that if you have been without insurance for 6 months, you can go to your state exchange for coverage and not be denied (not sure what you do in states that haven't set up their exchange yet). 

I think the reasoning behind it was they didn't want a mass of people all changing their companies at once. I know that as soon as I'm able, I will be seeing what my options are.  

http://action.acscan.org/site/DocServer/Affordable_Care_Act_Through_the_Cancer_Lens_Final.pdf?docID=18421 

VJ:  I went to that link and it gives everything that will happen in 2014 but definitely states people have to be without health insurance for 6 months to purchase the plans.  I could not find what you state.  Do you know what page it is on? 

BTW, I went back to the info and on Page 6 it says the same thing about having to be without insurance for 6 months.  I could find nothing saying this changes in 2014.  I would think my senators would have at least told me that much if it were so.  If it is, please show me how I can find it.  Thanks!

Well, I found the answer and not one of the senators etc. bothered to explain it to me.  PCIP seems to end in 2014 and will be taken over by another type of healthcare.  What I read does not make it clear if this will have the 6 month clause but I hope not.  Maybe this is what you were talking about VJ.  I appreciate your steering me to the right info!

Good Morning Granny.  Where do you see that we have 209 responses for those actually willing to "walk the walk" as they say?  I have asked Merilee if she could share just how many have agreed but I haven't heard from her yet.  I checked her blog but can't find additional info there either.  I will check it again to see if she has put new info on it last night maybe.

I think we have ladies who want to get involved but are not giving their input because they think everything is already written in stone and don't really understand what is really going on.  Hell!  I have been with this from the day the idea was proposed and I still am unclear as to what is what!  That's not going to stop me from doing "my" part on the 23rd!  Like you said, "the clock is ticking"!

How about a show of hands? 

If you will commit to sending a letter on January 23 to your rep or senator, or to the president, or to the speaker, or to the senate majority leader, or to whomever you think would benefit from hearing from you-- post a simple 'Count Me In.'  

My letter is written--about how I had to resort to a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy, because there is no vaccine to make me immune to breast cancer, our family disease. I ask President Obama and Speaker Boehner to put aside the partisan bickering and work together to ensure that funding for breast cancer research, aimed at a vaccine, does not get cut in this election year when we will be seeing promises to cut spending from both sides of the political aisle. I ask them to not only protect vaccine research from cuts, but to increase federal dollars toward developing a vaccine, and my letter includes facts about the amount of federal spending on breast cancer research ($778 million estimated for 2012) compared to the amount of federal spending on breast cancer treatment via medicare and medicaid ($4 billion). I ask them to consider that a vaccine's development and distribution costs will evenutally have a payback, saving an estimated $4 billion (and growing) per year.

But that's my message; yours may be quite different, but whatever you write will be a poignant reminder that we want our common BC experience to be noted during a year when priority-setting becomes front and center through election campaigning.

Count me in!

Carol

Count me in....

Medigal

I have written to my congressmen this week - we are in deep debt BECAUSE of breast cancer.  We cannot get any kind of loan because three bills slipped through into collections (we owed TWENTY EIGHT places money - bills pouring in as I was still undergoing treatment --you know what it's like!) 

 Even though these bills have now been paid, they will remain on our credit report for SEVEN YEARS and will count towards our score.  One was only $78.  No car loans if we need it, and I have four children approaching college age in the next few years - will we even be able to get a loan for them?   Can't get a low rate credit card anymore - was going to roll our cards onto a zero APR but now we can't do that, so our credit card debt keeps going on and on (something we never had before breast cancer- but now because of our credit score, the credit union is hiking our interest.)  And the ripple effect goes on and on...

So years and years of perfectly good credit wrecked by some breast cancer bills that went to collections at lightening speed.  

I would like to see the the bill that was proposed last June put through to law, that once a medical bill under $2500 is paid, it is removed from credit within a short time, especially during a catastrophic illness situation!  So far this bill is just lying there collecting dust.  

It's bad enough to have had breast cancer, but if you're in the US, are of the middle class and you only have access to a high deductible policy, you're pretty much screwed financially.  

calam:  There are SO many aspects which allows bc to destroy our lives and it is not just what it does to our bodies and mines.  YOU are bringing up the "financial" aspect and I do encourage you to put together a letter letting Obama know of what it has personally done to you and your family.  What we are hopping is that if he gets inundated next week with all our letters and someone picks out yours to show him the "financial" burden cancer puts upon many, maybe, just maybe it will shine a light on it and encourage him to really DO something about this national calamity.

It is great you have already written to your congressmen but it is so important that you copy whatever you wrote and send it to Obama on the 23rd when hopefully so many of our letters will be going to him.   I love your quote from Matt 14:28.  Just remember that "God helps those who help themselves" so make that extra move and join in our campaign on the 23rd so Obama can see ALL horrors of this damnable disease.  Thank you dear one for your courage and your help!

Note:  Calam:  I just finished redoing my seperate letters to Pres. Obama and Speaker Boehner. While I was doing them, I decided to add an additional paragraph about the destruction cancer does to us financially even if we have medical insurance and how "cancer has no pity on it's victims".  Now if you can send them or even just Obama the information you want to get to him, he will not be unaware of the financial burdens of this disease. 

Medigal: This is from: http://healthreform.gov/newsroom/new_patients_bill_of_rights.html

Providing Affordable Coverage to Americans without Insurance due to Pre-existing Conditions: Starting July 1, Americans locked out of the insurance market because of a pre-existing condition can begin enrolling in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP). This program offers insurance without medical underwriting to people who have been unable to get it because of a preexisting condition. It ends in 2014, when the ban on insurers refusing to cover adults with pre-existing conditions goes into effect and individuals will have affordable choices through Exchanges - the same choices as members of Congress.

In California the state has already set up  our exchange, I'm just waiting until 2014 to see what options I have and I just hope it's better than what I've got.