"There are outcomes we can calculate—the number of newly insured families, the number of lives saved... Then there are the outcomes that are harder to calculate—yes, in the tally of pain and tragedy and bankruptcies that have been averted, but also in the security of a parent who can afford to take her kid to the doctor. The dignity of a grandfather who can get the preventive care he needs. The freedom of an entrepreneur who can start a new venture." - President Obama on the Affordable Care Act This is a compelling statement that reinforces the pain, economic hardship, injustice, and setback to civil rights if the U.S. Supreme Court rules to deny subsidies to the millions of Americans who obtained affordable health insurance on the Federal exchange. It is so obvious that the ACA was designed to offer subsidies to all who qualified. If the Supreme Court rules otherwise, it will be an example of extreme judicial activism and unconstitutional legislating from the bench. We need to stand ready to protest and mobilize to turn the Republicans out of office if the right-wing stacked court comes up with a ruling to deny ACA subsidies to those who qualify and enrolled for health insurance under the federal exchange. Sign on to pledge that you will do what you can to ensure such a decision will have huge political repercussions that will boomerang against Republicans.

On November 9, 2014, at 01:50 am my wife Kristen starts to breathe erratically. I woke up our daughters Abigail, age 6 and Katlyn, age 7. I explained to them the best I could through my tears that it is time to say goodbye to their mother. Abigail is crying and leans up and gives her mom a last kiss while whispering in her ear “I love you so much mommy.” Katlyn goes up to her mother and gives her mom a kiss as a tear falls from Kristen’s left eye. Katlyn is trying so hard to speak through her emotions, and finally says, “Mommy please don't go, I love you so much mommy.” All three of us watched heartbroken as Kristen takes her last breath. Hello, my name is Joseph Jennings. In 2008, my wife delivered our second child. Two months later she discovered a lump in her breast. She is told by her doctor that since she is only 32-years-old that her medical insurance would not cover a mammogram and besides the lump is most likely related to her breastfeeding our child. She was later diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer and even after a radical mastectomy, given approximately 6 months left to live. After a heroic 5 ½ - year-long fight, she passed away in our home in November of 2014. My family’s story is just one of many stories that needlessly end this way as American woman continue to die of breast cancer at an alarming rate. The Preventive Special Task Force is now pushing to increase the age for regular mammogram screenings from 40 years to 50 while also recommending that such screenings be performed every other year instead of bi-annually. Our goal is to empower more women by lowering the age that insurance companies must pay for mammograms to 30-years-old. Young women who find themselves in a situation such as my wife, women who have a family history of breast cancer, or have no history because they are adopted deserve the right to choose such screenings when they feel they are necessary and to have their medical insurance company pay for them. We are needlessly losing young mothers, wives, daughters, nieces, cousins, aunts, and friends to breast cancer. I am asking that you please stand with me in demanding that ALL women be empowered. That ALL women be given the choice to do what they believe is best for their health and not have their choices limited or dictated by their medical insurance providers. You can join our mission by signing the petition. I have also created a page on Facebook for all cancer patients where they can go and chat, make friends, and find support - the address for this petition is https://www.facebook.com/groups/kristenstruewillpower/. For everyone without a Facebook account, I created a website that you can read all about Kristen's journey with breast cancer. You can find this page at http://www.kristenstruewillpower.com. Each and every woman, no matter what her age, deserves to be empowered with every tool available to detect and beat breast cancer. Thank you, Joseph Jennings

I accepted responsibility of a neighbor who has no family. She entered a nursing home as a full time resident in January. She has long term healthcare insurance which covers a majority of the expense but not all of it. When they sent me a bill for the uncovered balance there was a separate 6% tax assessment. I was amazed that such a tax was passed back in 2002. I believe this is a way charging the tax payers twice. Our tax dollars are being used to pay for people with no assets and then the state is charging the county another tax of 6%. With the growing number of people living longer this is going to be a windfall for the state to put money back into the general fund to be used as they please.

I am personally affected because I could try this cure, except the law prevents my doctor from assisting me. So I have to "do it myself" or go to a foreign country (where it's allowed) to get assistance. Thousands of people are affected by this rule and many are desperate to try FMT but cannot. My hope is that all of those who suffer from IBS, Chron's, UC, and a myriad other diseases that fecal transplant may help cure will sign this petition.

In 1986 Congress granted immunity to vaccine makers against all lawsuits. The Government (i.e. we the taxpayers) is now grudgingly paying billions to parents of children damaged by vaccines, but only after years of litigation. This, at a time when the vaccine makers such as Merck make billions in profits. The compensation money comes from a $0.75 excise tax that taxpayers pay for each vaccine. The vaccine makers continue to make more vaccines and are lobbying state legislatures to remove existing exemptions (e.g. SB 277 and SB 792 in CA). There is talk of making vaccination mandatory for adults also. In this environment of only profits and no liability, there is absolutely no incentive for vaccine makers to make vaccines safe. Vaccine makers cannot lobby/pay politicians to force mandates on us and not pay for the damages their products cause! Not in the LAND OF THE FREE!!

IT'S ABOUT OUR Health and Our Health Care in Colorado! And, we want to VOTE FOR the ColoradoCare* Initiative#20 in November 2016! We need affordable, quality health care for all Coloradans! We need it now! We cannot wait! . . . *(previously known as the "Colorado Health Care Cooperative") . . . TWO YEARS AGO, starting in May of 2013, over 700 Coloradans, yourself included, signed our petition stating: "VOTE FOR the Colorado Health Care Cooperative in 2013!!!" When you signed this petition in 2013, your signing was communicated to your state elected officials, including Governor John Hickenlooper, and members of the Colorado State House and Senate. Our intent was to have the State Legislature refer the "Cooperative" to the November State ballot that year so all registered voters could make the decision for/against universal health care in Colorado. WE SAID: As my Colorado Senator or Representative, I’m asking you to VOTE to send the Colorado Health Care Cooperative to the voters of Colorado as a referred measure on November 5, 2013.” We added: “It’s our Health and our Health Care! We Coloradans have the right to make the decision for ourselves at the ballot box!” We further declared: “It’s about our Health and our Health Care in Colorado! And, we want to VOTE FOR the Colorado Health Care Cooperative in November 2013! We need affordable, quality health care for all Coloradans NOW! Let us vote! Let us decide! We need it now! We cannot wait!” EVEN BEFORE THAT, in late 2011 through early 2013, many of us, including you possibly, over 1450 Coloradans, signed an earlier petition stating: "We need affordable, quality health care for all Coloradans! We need it now! We cannot wait!" This earlier petition also went to the same set of decision-makers in Colorado, and was delivered personally to Governor Hickenlooper's office, while our elected representatives in the State House and Senate were notified by emails. BOTTOM LINE RESULTS ACHIEVED SO FAR (as I see it) were that . . . The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was affirmatively accepted in Colorado, and despite some strong opposition, Colorado created its own marketplace, known as a State Exchange, and accepted Medicaid expansion even though the U.S. Supreme Court made the Medicaid expansion "voluntary" for states in June 2012. So far, Colorado's "uninsured rate" has fallen from ~17% to ~11% . . . so I would argue that Colorado very much still needs what our earlier petitions have been asking for and seeking to promote as a unique, Colorado solution . . . Everyone covered . . . Billions of dollars saved . . . Comprehensive health prevention and health care benefits . . . In the ColoradoCare Health Plan now referred to as ColoradoCare Initiative#20 . . . Designed in Colorado for a healthier Colorado . . . LESSONS LEARNED: It’s up to us, the citizens and registered voters of Colorado, to make this happen . . . so now in 2015, it’s past time for us to do what needs to be done to GET OUR VOTE FOR the ColoradoCare Initiative#20 in November, 2016 . . . Gather ~100,000 valid voter petition signatures by October, 2015 . . . This really is up to us! . . . To do! . . . or not . . . That is TODAY'S BIG QUESTION! . . .

In 2013, a sit-in at the Center for Care and Discovery ended with the violent arrest of four Trauma Center Coalition protesters, one of them a graduate student. Now, nine protesters are being arrested while advocating for trauma care. Glass was shattered in their faces, and they were forcibly removed from a University building. The lack of a Level I Adult trauma center on the South Side of Chicago is a disgrace. City officials, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and doctors from across the city agree that the facility is desperately needed, and yet, the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), “at the forefront of medicine” refuses to address the Trauma Center Campaign -- a community demand now more than five years old. We urge the University of Chicago to drop the charges against these protesters, and act with urgency to address the lack of trauma care on the South Side of Chicago.

As federal guidelines are updated under ObamaCare, and are on track to go into effect January 1, 2016, private insurance and Medicare coverage for a procedure that millions of women currently get at no cost will be affected. In 2015, the American Cancer Society estimates 231, 840 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. 40,290 of them will die. Even more alarming is that number could surge. The National Institutes of Health predicts the number of U.S. women diagnosed with breast cancer could increase by as much as 50 percent within the next 15 years. Many of these deaths can be prevented with regular mammograms and early detection. So why aren’t they? Ask the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The Task Force, an independent, volunteer panel of experts in preventive care and evidence-based medicine regularly reviews the scientific data about breast cancer screening. The group recently posted a draft recommendation that the benefit of mammography screening increases with age, with the 50 to 74 age group benefiting the most. Yet they recommend women over 50 only get a mammogram every other year. The Task Force found that mammography screening may not be necessary at all for women in their 40s. This means ObamaCare and Medicare will no longer cover annual screenings beginning 2016. The American Cancer Society continues to recommend mammograms every year for healthy women beginning at age 40. Is the USPSTF looking to increase the breast cancer death rate? When the Task Force issued similar guidelines back in 2009, it took an act of Congress to ensure mammography coverage for women younger than 50. This new legislation eliminates private insurance coverage and Medicare coverage of annual mammograms for women over 40. Is an act of Congress again necessary to preserve these lifesaving procedures? What can you do? Be heard. Call or email your Congressman. [Contact info: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/] Call your insurance provider. Push for annual mammography coverage for women in their 40s under the Affordable Care Act. Save your own life and those you love.

-According to the 2014 Annual Homeless Assessment Report 1-2.9% of Tennessee's population is chronically homeless. -It costs the state $30,000-50,000 per chronically homeless person annually due to incarcerations, mental institute visits, and shelter accommodations. -Utah has reduced its homeless population by 91% through a free housing initiative called "Housing First."

Across the nation, states are moving towards easing marijuana penalties to fight back against prison overcrowding and save taxpayer dollars. But, right now, possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana is considered a felony in Arkansas, punishable by up to 6 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. It's time to change this.

I was Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at a top NY Hospital. Budget cuts and hospital mergers cut staff. When care was not safe I as always put my Patients best interest first as I should, however the Hospital runs as a business even if it cost lives. I was told to shut up or I will be destroyed for life. I was removed from schedule, my personal belongings taken, my sick time, all benefits forfeited and my life destroyed. We must have a "Good Samaritan law to protect Morally sound Hospital based Physicians"

Republican Member of Congress Rep. Dana Rohrabacher introduced legislation that would ban pregnant women from entering the United States. The law would require women entering the United States with B-1 or B-2 nonimmigrant visas to bring a note from a doctor certifying that either they are not pregnant or not expected to give birth during their time in the country. This outrageous legislation is anti-women and anti-family. Please urge your Members of Congress and President Obama to oppose HR 2484.