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.

American citizens pay twice for drugs. Taxpayers help fund drug research and development through the NIH. Then US taxpayers pay a second time by paying higher prices for new drugs, unlike citizens of the UK and Canada who benefit from government negotiations with pharmacies. We keep hearing about the US FISCAL crisis. Why not recover some lost money and help pay for more NIH funding, defray the costs of the ACA, expand GME and fix the SGR!.

The current medical marijuana law is great for people that are on the list of approved illnesses and not-so great for other people that are not on the list. Those people are being discriminated against. We know very well that marijuana can cure more than what is currently outlined by the bill.

As a primary care physician, I know the value of having a doctor to call your own. I have volunteered in Free Clinics in both Prince William County and the city of Fredericksburg. The charitable care provided in Free Clinics is wonderful, but does not compare to the ongoing continuity of care provided by one's own primary care physician. Expanding Medicaid will improve the health of our fellow Virginians and save lives. We need your help to end the Medicaid blockade before the Commonwealth shuts down on July 1.

In August, it will be a year since my stem cell transplant. I was one of the lucky ones. My sister was a perfect match (see “Lifesaving Procedure With an Image Problem”, New York Times, Science, April 22,2014, p.D7, see link below) But for many of the 12,000 patients diagnosed in the U.S. each year with blood cancers, only about 30% of those needing a transplant will have a matching donor in their family. The other 70% will depend on the National Marrow Donor Program (BetheMatch.org) to identify a matching donor. The likelihood of such a find ranges from 66% to 93%, with minority groups seriously underrepresented. Getting the word out to potential donors about this relatively simple, but life saving procedure is a difficult and costly process. Our idea is to link transplant donation to blood donation. We know that donating blood at one’s place of work or through community blood drives is a well known and accepted activity. We suggest that at the conclusion of the blood donation, individuals be presented with information about being a transplant donor. Cheek swab kits (used to determine matches) can be available for interested parties and completed kits can be immediately forwarded to the National Marrow Donor Program. *New York Times article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/lifesaving-procedure-with-an-image-problem/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Last week a Summit County, Ohio deputy forced Siobhan Householder to spit out a prescription pain pill she took for a toothache. That same week, officers at Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare in Athens, Ohio held down John Rohrer, a head injury survivor, so he could be force-injected with a drug that causes brain damage. The video of Householder's assault clearly shows she was sitting peacefully in the room of a courthouse and in no distress until officer Vaughan grabbed her by the hair, pinned her down and shoved his hand into her mouth in an attempt to remove a pill. As a result, photos show, the woman suffered bruises on her chin and other parts of her body and cuts in her mouth. Rohrer had simply been walking down the hall at Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare in Athens, Ohio, a state hospital he has sued for illegally detaining him, when he was assaulted. Police officers Brian Willard and Todd Bumbalough pinned down Rohrer so he could be injected with a drug [Risperdal] whose manufacturer has been successfully sued in several states for its fraudulent marketing of that drug. Rohrer's doctor outside the hospital, whom he's been banned from seeing, agrees with him that the medication forced on him is detrimental to his health AND VIOLATES THE STANDARD OF CARE. Ohio legislators must stop police officers from assaulting citizens over healthcare choices. I write this petition on behalf of Ms. Householder, whom I don't know personally, and on behalf of John Rohrer and a family member, with whom I am friends - also on behalf of all others I personally know have been assaulted in this way.