My brother Bob is one of 52,000 Rhode Islanders who suffers from Serious Mental Illness. I've witnessed him struggle with schizophrenia since he was a teenager - and I’ve seen how much healthier and happier he is because of the services he receives from his community mental health center. Due to recent State budget cuts, 1,000 people with Serious Mental Illness have been stripped of their case managers. Case managers ensure their clients receive the medications, housing, clothing, and food that they require to thrive. Without such fundamental rights being met, those who are in the greatest of need, such as my brother, will suffer unnecessarily. We are obligated to help people with mental illness stay on their path towards wellness. I, and each person that signs this petition, believe people with mental illness should be provided every possible resource to become - and remain - healthy. We understand what could happen when these individuals lose their support systems. And we are deeply concerned about how this will negatively impact our community as a whole. Due to the recent loss of CNOM (Costs Not Otherwise Matchable) funding, 1,000 Rhode Islanders with Serious Mental Illness will no longer have access to their case managers. This will inevitably lead to increased rates of depression and anxiety, hospitalizations, and incarcerations. By signing this petition, I am calling upon Governor Chafee and Rhode Island State Legislators to find a way to reinstate CNOM funding so we can help people with Serious Mental Illness continue to get the support they deserve.

Because tens of millions of lives and our economy depend upon it.

Despite warnings from the Health Policy Commission and leading health care experts that the merger of Partners HealthCare and South Shore Hospital – as well as Partners’ acquisition of Hallmark Health System – will drive up Massachusetts’ health care costs and hurt competition, Attorney General Martha Coakley approved the deal. Her decision to allow this merger is a disservice to the interests of patients, families, communities, and businesses throughout our state. It permits expansion of Partners’ market dominance in return for timid and unenforceable conditions of conduct. Furthermore, this deal is the product of secret, closed-door negotiations – a process bound to injure the public’s trust. The lack of an open dialogue involving the people of Massachusetts has denied residents, other health care providers, and employers the chance to voice legitimate and serious objections to this expansion of Partners’ market power. This is a time when rising health care cost is the most important single obstacle to the ability of businesses in our state to grow and hire workers. In addition, millions of individuals and families across Massachusetts struggle under the cost of care and worry about their continuing access to the providers of their choice. At bottom, the people of Massachusetts simply cannot afford this deal. It will harm the Massachusetts health care system for a decade. We urge Judge Sanders to reverse Attorney General Coakley’s unwise and imprudent decision. It will cause permanent and irreparable harm to the Massachusetts health care system.

I'm outraged by how "religion" is being used to undermine women's rights and how women constantly have to defend their rights. Religion is being used as the excuse to undermine women's rights, when it really comes down to men trying to control women. It's NOT okay for men to be provided male enhancing products (which are entirely recreational) through health insurance plans, but women are now being denied access to contraception (not recreational at all) - which is far more important than a man's hard-on! Take a man's ability to purchase male-enhancing drugs through health insurance away, and let's see how quickly the male judges on the supreme court give us back our right to contraception through these same plans. It's time we women began fighting back instead of just defending our rights. Give us our contraception back through health plans, and we'll let you keep your Viagra on your health plans!

Oregon’s health insurers must get permission from state officials before they can raise premiums on individuals and small businesses. For several years, OSPIRG Foundation has put a magnifying glass to premium hike proposals, and thousands of OSPIRG members have emailed and called the state’s Insurance Division. All this additional scrutiny has helped cut over $155 million in waste from health insurance premiums since 2010. Now, we've dug into the latest rate hike proposals from four of Oregon’s top insurers. None of them has done enough to justify the prices they’ve proposed. • Moda is proposing a 12.5% rate hike on over 95,000 Oregonians, without outlining a plan for passing along cost savings from health reform to their members. • PacificSource, which initially proposed a 15.9% increase, has already admitted that their proposal was based on errors that would have overcharged their customers. They revealed the mistake only after it became clear that the original proposal was more expensive than many other health plans – such as Providence, which is proposing a 16% decrease in premiums for identical coverage. • Health Net and United are paying more for emergency room visits than many other insurers, yet they are both proposing big rate increases without demonstrating that they are doing all they can to reduce these costs and keep their members out of the ER. With study after study showing that one-third of health care spending is waste, we can’t afford anything but a full-court press for more effective use of our health care dollars.

In less than two months, the prices for all Colorado health insurance plans for 2015 will be set in stone. Without proper scrutiny, prices could unfairly go up. Here’s the story: At the end of June, health insurance companies released their proposals for what their plans will cost Coloradans for next year. While some are proposing to charge less, some are proposing increases as high as 25%. It’s up to the Colorado Division of Insurance to review the insurance companies' proposals and ensure they are doing everything they can to cut waste before jacking up rates. These plans are complicated and with only two months to review them, we need to encourage the Colorado Division of Insurance to take out their magnifying glasses and dig deep. Tell the Colorado Division of Insurance: Stop any unjustifiable health insurance rates.

In the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, an injustice has been done to the rights of women. Corporations should not be given the same rights as people. They have been given the right to free speech, political expenditures and now are able to deny women health coverage of the following contraceptives: Ella, Plan B and IUDs. Corporations should only have limited liability and privileges given from our government for providing goods and services to the people. That's as far as it goes; corporations simply aren't people and shouldn't be treated as people. Hobby Lobby still covers Viagra and vasectomies, yet covering IUDs and the morning after pill is an issue. This isn't a controversy concerning religious freedom; however, this is a matter of women's rights. If this was about religious freedom, the religious rights of the Hobby Lobby employees would be considered. A female employee for Hobby Lobby should not have her right for coverage of Plan B, Ella or IUDs taken away because of the religious beliefs of an owner of a corporation. Women deserve the right to reproductive freedom and full healthcare. This Supreme Court decision could also disturb the rights of the LGBT community or the ability to receive coverage for vaccinations or blood transfusions due to this supposed religious freedom of corporations. Sign this petition for the religious rights of every individual in this nation!

Because Congress must act when a branch of government fails to do so.

H.R. 2286: MOMS Act provides comprehensive solutions, including a national consumer education campaign, so that families can make more informed decisions; federal research and national databasing of the most current, scientifically supported best practices; and improved education for maternity care professionals across the disciplines. It will also help to open up access to proven safer, less expensive options for maternity care, including birth centers (with a 6% national C-section rate), professional labor support (shown to decrease the incidence of Cesarean by 28%), and appropriate midwifery led care. The cost savings – including to taxpayers, who pay for about half of all U.S. births – are enormous: around $5 billion each year by cutting the national Cesarean rate in half, to the safer levels suggested by the World Health Organization and other health organizations! I urge you to support and cosponsor H.R. 2286 for all our families. Let’s end this maternity care crisis!

I am a New York State Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). The current exclusion of LMHC's from treating Medicaid beneficiaries results in denial of vital mental health services for those in need. With the rise of adolescence and young adult crime and psychological problems, many beneficiaries suffer with a lack of mental health providers in their communities for treatment accessibility. Some beneficiaries are fortunate and find Medicaid eligible providers in their communities; many never receive needed care. LMHC represents over 40% of todays NYC licensed practitioners. Unfortunately, Medicaid has not been modernized to recognize our essential role in today's health delivery system. Our adolescence and young adult psychological problems should be our top priority, and Medicaid should utilize LMHC's to treat mental health disorders before they exacerbate into more serious mental disorders. Our children are suffering with mental health risk behaviors and harming others. Many children are being killed by their peers who have mental disorders. There needs to be more interventions to help these individuals manage these risk behaviors and psychological problems.

The Supreme Court ruled in the Hobby Lobby decision that closely held corporations can refuse to offer contraceptive coverage to their workers on religious grounds, siding with two businesses who say they’re morally opposed to certain types of birth control. President Obama has called for Congress to remedy the situation by passing new legislation. Congress needs to take action to solve this problem that’s been created by the Hobby Lobby decision. Why? 99 percent of U.S. women who use contraception at some point in their lives. As a result, unintended pregnancies have become increasingly concentrated among poor women who lack access to birth control. Congress must act to restore insurance coverage of contraception benefits after Hobby Lobby’s big win in the Supreme Court. Call on our North Carolina representatives to be leaders on this issue. Access to contraceptives is an incredibly important issue for low-income women. The unintended pregnancy rate for women living below the poverty level is more than five times as high as the rate for the women in the highest income level. The Supreme Court created this problem, but Congress can fix it. The health of millions of American families hangs in the balance.

I have worked in Arkansas public schools for over 28 years. The recent proposed changes in our health care plans will affect me negatively, both financially and in the care that I will be able to access.