I LOST MY DAUGHTER AND MY GRANDSONS DUE TO THE MENTAL HEATH LAW IN PLACE. PRIORITY NEEDS TO BE PUT IN PLACE. BEFORE A MENTALLY ILL PERSON COMMITS A CRIME .

Veterans that have served their country honorably should NOT have to pay a co-pay on prescription drugs. Especially veterans who are disabled and on a pension or social security disability. Isn't it hardship enough that the veteran is disabled?

My daughter's family has gone bankrupt due to medical expenses for their very ill child. This happened DESPITE having 'insurance'. They can barely afford decent food even though both are working. Extended family has helped out as much as they can. There is a very negative ripple effect when a crisis as described above happens: not only the immediate family is traumatized, but extended family and friends as well. Lives are put on hold, productivity goes down, depression sets in. It is in everyone's interest that we unconditionally take care of our young, if not out of noble intentions, then because the young will eventually be the ones who take care of us. HOW they take care of us may well be determined by how well we take care of them.

As a dental provider, I know that dental diseases are preventable. As a taxpayer, I don't want to pay for the creation of another dental provider to treat a preventable disease. Help the public understand that creating a midlevel provider, isn't the same as focusing on putting an end to dental diseases. We should be working to end dental diseases. Dental hygienists in schools, (with the goal of ending dental diseases for all children) in areas of LIMITED DENTAL ACCESS could happen now! Research is available that this type of intervention (done in 1979) ended dental diseases as we know them in schools, in Sweden. BMC Oral Health Proceedings Open Access The Effect of a Needs-Related Caries Preventive Program in Children and Young Adults – Results after 20 Years P Axelsson* Address: Department of Preventive Dentistry, Public Dental Health Service, Karlstad, Sweden Email: P Axelsson* - [email protected] * Corresponding author Abstract The risk for caries development in children varies significantly for different age groups, individuals, teeth, and surfaces. Thus from a cost-effectiveness point of view, caries preventive measures must be integrated and based on predicted risk from age group down to individual tooth surfaces. Based on this philosophy and experiences from continuously ongoing research on evaluating and reevaluating separate and integrated caries preventive measures, as well as methods for prediction of caries risk, a needs-related caries preventive program was introduced for all 0–19-year-olds in the county of Värmland, Sweden, in 1979. The goals for the subjects following the program from birth to the age of 19 years were: 1. To have no approximal restorations. 2. To have no occlusal amalgam restorations. 3. To have no approximal loss of periodontal attachment. 4. To motivate and encourage individuals to assume responsibility for their own oral health. The effect of the program is evaluated once every year on almost 100% of all 3–19-year-olds in a computer-aided epidemiologic program from 1979. Most of the individualized preventive program was carried out by dental hygienists or prophy dental assistants at clinics in the elementary schools. During the 20-year period the percentage of caries-free 3-year-olds increased from 51% to 97%. In 1999 as many as 86% of the 12-year-olds were caries free. Caries incidence was reduced more than 90% in all age groups. More than 90% did not develop any new caries lesions in 1999. As a consequence, caries prevalence was dramatically reduced. In 12- and 19-year-olds, the mean number of Decayed and Filled Surfaces (DFS) per individual was reduced from 6 to 0.3 and from 23 to 2 respectively. In 19-year-olds the mean number of approximal DFS was <1, and only 0.5 had to be filled. The mean number of occlusal DFS was <1. Since 1995 we have not been allowed to use amalgam in 1–19-year-olds in Sweden. As an effect of our high quality plaque program, approximal attachment loss was prevented, and by efficient education in self-care based on selfdiagnosis, needs-related self-care habits were established. Thus it can be concluded that nearly 100% of our goals had been achieved. from Biotechnology and Biomaterials to Reduce the Caries Epidemic Seattle, USA. 13–15 June 2005 Published: 10 July 2006 BMC Oral Health 2006, 6(Suppl 1):S7 doi:10.1186/1472-6831-6-S1-S7 <p>Biotechnology and Biomaterials to Reduce the Caries Epidemic</p> Rebecca L Slayton, James D Bryers, Peter Milgrom Proceedings http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6831-6-S1-info.pdf © 2006 Axelsson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Let's work to end dental diseases in Washington State NOW!

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.