Our very unpopular governor is holding hostage thousands of PA poor by not accepting Medicaid funds under the ACA. He is waiting for his plan to be approved by the ACA. His plan: a work requirement for recipients and funneling the funds to private health insurance companies to cover fewer of the poor in the coverage gap. I hope the ACA doesn't approve his plan. We need these funds to create more jobs in PA, and to keep many of our rural small hospitals open, and most important, to allow thousands of poor PA citizens to access healthcare.

I had low cholesterol and blood pressure, didn't have diabetes, and was a non-smoker. But I lost my career because of stroke. So if you think it couldn't happen to you, think again. More research should be done for its causes and treatment--immediately!

This petition is to give hope to Americans suffering from incurable diseases such as but not limited to; auto immune diseases, cancers, STD's, skin disorders, paralysis and nerve damage. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2010, it is an auto immune disease that affects the muscles and nerves and it has restricted my abilities tremendously. This disease has been in America for over fifty years with little insight of its origin or a cure and I want the government to share the cures of all medical diseases that are known to be safe to mankind or be punished. One nation under God is the American we must take part in freeing God's children!!!

I had a good friend, Billy, who died two years ago because he got sick, lost his job, and didn't qualify for Medicaid in Florida. Six people in Florida die every day because they cannot afford to purchase health insurance, yet the Florida legislature, callously, and for purely political reasons, refuses to bring Medicaid expansion up for a vote. The failure to expand Medicaid in Florida will lead to the forfeiture of $50 billion over ten years, and the closure of hospitals due to cuts in federal reimbursements for uncompensated care. People in Florida are dying from curable diseases because the Florida legislature insists on legislating based on hatred of President Obama. My friend Billy was one death too many. It's time to do the right thing: Expand Medicaid in Florida!

For Chronic Lyme Disease Patients who are suffering with Lyme disease and are being refused proper treatment or can not afford treatment.

There are 100+ million chronic pain patients, who are now considered a part of the "War on Drugs." This war should only concentrate on the cartels, drug smugglers and abusers. Not real patients with real, intense pain, with no hope for any relief but the medications, our doctors prescribe. Sometimes medications which are opiates, the last hope in relieving our pain. We are forced to take these because everything else, we've tried, has worked. We don't sell our precious pain medications, because we need them for our intense pain. So we can cook, clean our homes, take care of families, etc. Our pain is such that it not only is extremely painful, like cancer patients feel, but it is exhausting, debilitating and causing most of us just to lie in bed in pain. Yet, people who don't suffer or have anyone, in their lives, who are suffering are making impossible for us to get any relief. They simply don't know what the pain, chronic pain patients are feeling. The DEA isn't just concentrating on the ones who abuse and make money from these opiates, no, they are also harming us! They are oppressing our doctors, pharmacies and honest manufacturers, as well, making them from helping us. So much so, most doctors won't treat us, anymore, or they just disappear, on us. We are NOT drug abusers, we don't sell our precious medications, which gives us relief from our intense pain, which we need to live our daily lives. Most of all, we don't get "highs" from these medications, for it is going directly to the pain sites. Unlike drug abusers, using drugs for recreation or sell them for profits. Please stop treating us as if we are. Our doctors carefully monitor our prescriptions, as well as the pharmacies. Our insurances, such as my disability insurance, cover these necessary medications, as well, so they are monitoring us, too. Stop the DEA from oppressing us, our doctors, pharmacies and honest drug manufacturers, but focus on the abusers! PLEASE HELP US, enjoy life too, even though our chronic, intense pain won't ever go away, but at least makes us more human. We are part of the "We the People," we want the "Liberty and Justice for All," too. But, we are treated less than animals, who get more humane treatments, than chronic pain patients. We didn't ask to be this way, we are sick because of hereditary, the jobs and the services we were part of, from exposure to asbestos and other harmful substances, we didn't know were affecting our health. Some suffer from accidents, the wars, from bad surgeries, too. I suffer from scoliosis of the spine, I was born with, which is now affecting my entire half of my body. I also have been diagnosed, for many years, with Mixed Connective Tissue Disease and Crest Syndrome, diseases that will eventually affect all my organs, such as my heart. I have a leaky valve, as well. Eventually, I will die, not a long life, but at least having a less painful life, if I can continue with my medications. I am, also, trying to care for my ex-husband, who is destitute and blind, with no one else to care for him. My income is too low for two people. I can't afford to go to a pain clinic, which is four hours from my home, also because it is too painful. I can't find a doctor, nearby who will help me, because of the DEA. This is also the problem for all chronic pain patients, all over the U.S.A! We write about our conditions and troubles, in finding help, for us. If all the non-sufferers would take the time to find "Chronic Pain Patients" on the Internet and read our stories, maybe then, with the knowledge they gain, they will understand our situations and our suffering. Please, help us keep our precious medications, so we can enjoy, at least, reading a book, seeing family and friends, without pain. Please, give our lives back. We are NOT Drug abusers.

I have no health insurance because I declined Medicare Part B. Open enrollment is only 3 months out of the year. If you decline Medicare Part B for any reason you will not be allowed to enroll again until the next year starting January and ending in March. However it is not valid until July 1. You could find yourself with no medical insurance up to 15 months. Help me change open enrollment to all months of the year and Medicare Part B take effect 30 days from enrolling.

Many veterans have not been getting the care they need or getting grossly inadequate care from the VA Medical System. This is to the point that they are literally dying, some by their own hands, while waiting for the government and system that sent them to war to treat their wounds. It's simple we pass a law that sends each veteran an insurance card that allows them to go wherever they want to get the care they need and they're covered.

Backlog at the VA is tragic. Poor adjustment for veterans can lead to a lifetime of problems.

My brother Sgt. John Ruble has been active duty for over ten years and spent time in Afghanistan and South Korea. He now suffers from extreme PTSD and Anxiety, and is not getting the treatment he needs from the US Army Warrior Transitional Battalion. This is a plea to help us get him home with family to receive the medical and behavioral health care that he desperately needs. For more information, please see the "Supporters of Sgt. John Ruble" group page on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/johngregory/

I am a semi-retired, licensed mental health counselor who spent 35 years in the public system: the courts, the prisons, the involuntary system, the community clinics and group homes, Red Cross disaster programs, programs for combat vets, programs for immigrants and refugees. Mental health care in general and public mental health in particular has never been adequately supported, funded or represented for what it truly is--an utterly necessary service intrinsic to modern societies. It's time--

Republican governors across the country have been changing course and accepting federal Medicaid dollars. They know why it’s important, and they know that the public wants them to do it. Unfortunately, Gov. McCrory still refuses to budge. If North Carolina continues to rejects these funds, more than 318,000 North Carolinians will have no access to affordable health care. Tell Gov. McCrory to accept federal Medicaid dollars and protect the 318,000 North Carolinians that would benefit.