Speaker Pelosi: Please Include Autism!
Yes, it's Friday in the middle of summer - but we're giving you an assignment, OK? Please call and fax Speaker Nancy Pelosi imploring her to include autism in the H.R. 3200 healthcare bill. Leave a comment here when you're assignment is complete and we'll give you a gold star. FREE -T-shirt to ONE COMMENTER.
"Health reform that does not stop autism insurance discrimination is unacceptable."
CALL 202-225-0100. And call. And call. And call.
FAX 202-225-4188 with the message and a photo of your child. Don't have a fax machine handy? Autism Votes (www.autismvotes.org) has a form makes it easy just like sending an email. A fax machine is not required but once you press send a fax will be on its way to her office.
Of course, this is one reason government-controlled "private" health insurance is so expensive - the plans are required to cover so many different conditions, that people who have no need for certain coverages are forced to pay for them.
The alternative is a completely free arena for individuals to transact without government intervention. A more robust, a-la-carte insurance selection menu. No government licensing of doctors limiting doctor supply. No subsidization of and cartelization by mainstream medicine organization like the AMA. No restricting alternative medicines.
Now, none of that will happen, but it's worth remembering that insurer mandates contribute to high prices and a consolidated insurance industry (small selection).
Posted by: J | July 23, 2009 at 04:31 AM
*c
add this into the word autists
Posted by: anonymous | July 19, 2009 at 06:04 PM
please discuss this with the autists involved.
Posted by: anonymous | July 19, 2009 at 06:02 PM
NO to HR3200. Too much government control. You can complain to the State Insurance Commissioner when your insurance company tries to hose you. Who do you complain to when the government does it?
Fast, good, free. Pick 2.
Posted by: Lisa Hillman | July 19, 2009 at 02:03 AM
Sent a letter via autismvotes.org. Whether it is healthcare coverage or seclusion/restraint, it is time for the discrimination against children with autism to end. Our children with autism deserve better.
Thanks for sending out this very important information! Will send onto other autism groups! We can make a difference.
Posted by: Kym Grosso | July 18, 2009 at 02:48 PM
There are newsmen telling us that they don't think this health bill is going to pass!TOO big, too complicated, too fast and not enough thinking on it all before being voted on.
There was also congressman on television that said that individuals in this country can not purchase insurance and that only employers (and large one at that) is what insurance companies are working with to make insurance affortable. He said the government needs to make changes where people can purchase health insurance just like they do car insurance. Except I know that if a family has several accidents (like my friend did) they will cancell your insurance or really raise the rates really high. That would be what would happen if someone got sick too. Health insurance would cancell or raise prices to high to afford.
The next suggestion is a co-op. Just like they do electricial companies in rural areas. I really like this plan! This might could work.
There are a lot of ancedotal evidence (we all here at Age of Austim blog know about ancedotal) that Canada, Britian, and Mass. patients are having to wait so long that it does not matter! BUT much worse is that people that are really sick, if the treatment is too high a cost then they are allowed to die! Scary stuff and so very wrong.
I will fax her like you said. But what is really needed is to get these treatments into main stream medicine. How do we go about doing that?
I have written everybody I know or you have directed me to write to. I am gratful for that too because with out Age of Autism my mind been squirming like a toad like it has for the past 20 years trying to figure out who to write to and and then getting the address. So you make it easy here, thanks!
Just got a response from the austim study group inside the NIH,and they said they would pass along my comments. (sigh)
I also just received a letter back from my representative in Washington D.C. - Hal Rogers. Form letter as usual. He said that Congres at the end of 2006 signed a law H.R. 2421 the Combating Autism Act. It provides one billion in federal funding to the National Instiutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research and treatment of this disorder through 2011. It is a 50 percent increase in research funding to combat autism.
He also said that Congress has passed 26.6 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health for 2009. Out of this funding, 1.45 billion is devoted to the National Institute of Mental Health and 1.6 billion for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke which also conducts research on autism.
So if that much money is going toward the stroke division somebody know what research is being done? I think some one here said nothing was being done with vaccines. (sigh)
What can we do to get the research that is needed, you know it is bad when just plain laymen know where the research is needed!
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | July 18, 2009 at 11:05 AM
I faxed.... from everyone here.
Posted by: Michelle | July 18, 2009 at 09:51 AM
My family is with you Kim! Keep up the good work. WE'LL KEEP BACKING YOU AND OUR KIDS TIL THE COWS COME HOME, or the insurance companies turn a new leaf.
Posted by: Dawn Edwards | July 17, 2009 at 11:38 PM
Done deal. Let's pray they hear our voice!
Posted by: Bonnie | July 17, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Faxed this: "stop throwing autism families under the bus" -BJ
Posted by: BJ | July 17, 2009 at 08:41 PM
Ok now that myself and many of us have contacted the speaker on more than one occasion lets see if she finally steps up and does something worth while.
Posted by: Denise McQuade | July 17, 2009 at 08:39 PM
done and done!
Posted by: Alison Macneil | July 17, 2009 at 08:26 PM
Called, faxed, and notified every body I know! Thanks, Kim!
Posted by: Susan Richardson | July 17, 2009 at 05:40 PM
I sent a fax from myself and one from my husband who is a pediatrician. Some people in this world (not me) still respect doctors' opinions.
Posted by: Christen | July 17, 2009 at 04:43 PM
I've called 3 times thus far. BTW Kim, Great article in Huffpo! Thanks!!
Posted by: Nancy Naylor | July 17, 2009 at 03:31 PM
called..will keep calling..candace
Posted by: candace | July 17, 2009 at 02:54 PM
Made my calls today. It was nice to see the vid of Rep Doyle. We are making a difference. Carry on. Still looking for people to write blogs, tweet, and promote a meeting with Angela Warner and Michelle Obama. Be vocal. Military Families are being left in the dust. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=223558880586
Posted by: Tanners Dad | July 17, 2009 at 02:10 PM
Done!
Posted by: Heather C | July 17, 2009 at 02:07 PM
My fax is in the machine, with a photo of 3 pretty girls included - busy busy the line is busy! That's good!
KIM
Posted by: Stagmom | July 17, 2009 at 02:01 PM
Done! But only for this hour!
Posted by: Jennifer Claassen | July 17, 2009 at 01:59 PM
I faxed them and told them I am a parent of a 16 year old Daughter diagnosed with PDD NOS Autism and now "mild Autism". We have lived with challenges everyday and have been denied services because of our insurance, our school system has to provide most of the services they need and when they are young adults then what??
Posted by: Donna Barber/ Minnesota Parent | July 17, 2009 at 01:43 PM
Just faxed Speaker Pelosi with my plea for my sons and the many others out there being denied access to the coverage for which we pay significantly! These insurance issues make me SICK---I pray for the day that "dealing with the insurance company" doesn't involve so much swearing and crying on my end...
Posted by: Sunny | July 17, 2009 at 01:14 PM
The House plan to reform the health insurance system is an awful one. Adding a requirement to cover autism won't make it a any better. I am contacting my Congressman and Senator to urge them not to support the plan.
Posted by: Robert Smith | July 17, 2009 at 01:12 PM
OK, I called!
Posted by: Cecily Ruttenberg | July 17, 2009 at 01:09 PM
Thank you Kim so much. You are awesome. I hope her office fills up with paper....FAST! Don't forget to call also. We want these guys really thirsty at Miller Time today and saying "WHAT THE HECK GOT INTO THE AUTISM COMMUNITY THIS WEEK?????"
Posted by: Shelley Hendrix Reynolds | July 17, 2009 at 01:01 PM