Individuals who are denied health insurance affects all citizens through increased hospitalization and other medical costs. Our state will thrive more when all of our citizens are cared for. Please sign this petition and send a message to Columbia.

We want to start this petition to show the state that we are concerned about the proposed changes to West Virginia IDD Waiver Manual that limits any person from working more than 40 hours a week with a waiver participant. This will affect our families by limiting care givers even more and in turn affect the individual by not having enough consistent staff.

I believe Rep. Murphy's Bill H.R. 3717 - The Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act, ensuring Psychiatric Care for Those in Need of Help the Most, has the fix for all problems found in the Oversight and Investigation report. I have experienced the problems sighted with my consumer peers, working for a Community Mental Health Center and as a field organizer for NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness. Driven by evidenced based care, the items to fix are many: Empower parents and caregivers by revising the HIPAA law, Addresses the shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds by changing the cap of beds per unit from 16 to 32, Gives alternatives to institutionalization, Reforms the Department of Justice, Reforms the accountability of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) by instituting a new oversight position reporting to Congress. Goals include: Reaching underserved and rural populations, Stabilizing beyond the ER, Advances critical medical research, Provides high quality community behavioral health services, Increasing awareness in the behavioral health needs of children and teens, Integrate primary and behavioral care, Increasing physician volunteerism.

To require our governor to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid to low-income and disabled Georgians.

Steve McNall of Lacey, Washington, was a son, an uncle, and a hard worker. When the recession hit, his hours at his job at a local golf course were cut back. He cut back too. He sold his house and moved into a small apartment near his family. He was living paycheck to paycheck. So when his tooth began to hurt, instead of seeking treatment he took an over the counter painkiller. But the pain continued. When it became unbearable, he finally gave in to his mother’s pressure to see someone. He visited a dental clinic accepting low income clients where staff confirmed he had an abscessed tooth and referred him to the emergency room for treatment of the severe infection. But without money for medical bills, he went home to rest instead. Hours later, after he didn’t answer his phone, his mom came by to check on him. But Steve was gone. The infection in his tooth had traveled throughout his body. Just two weeks after his tooth started hurting, on November 13, 2012, Steve McNall lost his life to an abscessed tooth – and a lack of affordable dental care. “He was a good man,” says his mother Brenda. “He worked. He paid his bills. When you think of all the medical problems in the world, it’s such a waste. Why are Steve and others like him not around? It’s unfair in a way. But dental care is outrageous.” It doesn't have to be this way. When people have access to routine care, emergencies are prevented. Mid-level dental providers—highly trained professionals who work with dentists in high need communities—are successfully working in other states to deliver exactly this kind of care. Even with Washington state’s increased efforts to provide dental insurance through Medicaid, too many people can’t get routine and preventive care. Three out of four dentists in our state reject this form of payment. We are a compassionate, innovative state. No one should suffer, and no one should lose their life because dental health care is out of reach. The time is now to put solutions in place, so that what happened to Steve doesn’t happen again.

Tell the Virginia General Assembly that we can’t afford double-taxation to pay for our healthcare system. We need to expand Medicaid to take back our federal tax dollars and ensure that 400,000 in-need Virginians have access to basic healthcare. Expanding Medicaid will: • Create 30,000 new jobs for Virginians • Recover $5 million federal tax dollars every day, allowing the legislature to fund other key priorities like education, economic development and foster care programs • Stop taxing Virginians twice on the healthcare for which we already pay • Provide life-saving healthcare to the 400,000 currently uninsured Virginians Sign the petition to tell legislators we can’t afford to play partisan politics with Virginians’ lives, we need to ensure access to basic healthcare for all Virginians.

I have a wife who suffers from lupus and renal failure. We carry two different types of insurance, and in the past have had three. Although current with having paid needed premiums, we are frequently sued for medical bills denied by the insurance companies. When being sued or trying to determine why the insurance companies denied claims, we are faced with the impossible task of trying to dechifer cryptic billing codes that cannot be interpreted by a lay person and or by a court. Thus, you are left with, "Well, you know the bill is your responsibility". In addition, these companies rotate between being primary and secondary. We have had claims denied because both insurance companies are declaring the other to be primary. The consumer should never be in the middle of this as they end up the loser by having to unfairly pay both the premiums and the medical bills.

Del. Albo: We need your support for expanding Medicaid in Virginia. As you probably know, there is strong support for this expansion in your district. As each of us will soon be reminded when we file our taxes, Virginians are paying for a host of federal programs, including this Medicaid expansion. We are paying for this program already and then not accepting the money from the federal government that is ours! Worse than that, whether we expand the program or not, we ARE paying for the care of the uninsured. We pay thousands of dollars to treat infections in the emergency room that could have been cleared up with $2 antibiotics. There is chicken pox going through my local schools and mumps are taking hold in the Midwest because vaccine rates are down. Uninsured Virginians are diverting money from other important budget priorities, and we can cover them for free for three years and at only 10% cost indefinitely thereafter. That is not to mention the economic and social benefits of having 191,000 poor and disabled Virginians more healthy and with more money to spend locally. I have written you previously, and you stated then that you were not opposed to expanding Medicaid under three conditions: a guarantee that the federal government pays its 90%, that Medicaid cost us no more than it does now, and that Virginia be allowed to investigate and prosecute fraud. The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, a federal law for years now, states that the federal government will pay 90% of the cost of expansion indefinitely after 3 years: only an act of Congress can change it. The Medicaid expansion will save us at least that 10% in reducing uncompensated care and cost-shifting. Of course, you know there will never be support for having states investigate federal crimes and enforce federal laws. You'll have to suck that up and do what is right for Virginia anyway. We could use your leadership and your independence here.

The people of the state of Alabama elected you to do the will of the people. The people of Alabama deserve affordable health care. The fact that there is a monopoly in the state by BC/BS leaves a lot to be desired. Stand up and do the right thing.

Its time for staff and MHAs to take charge. I have stood by and watched patients and staff be abused by administration's corrupt policies and procedures too long. Medicare and Insurance company's are being defrauded. The children do not know thier doctors and they rarely see the few therapists S.M.T.C. The patients assault peers and staff with little to no consequences. Staff are overworked, underpaid and not given respect by all administrators and managers. Even with the great deal of effort maintainance and housekeeping put forth, the facility is in poor condition and falling apart . Most of the buildings have mold and generally reek of a bodily function. It is time for something to change! Please sign and share! These children deserve a fair chance at a decent future. All therapy should not just be documented, but also monitored to ensure that it is being done. Patients mattresses have holes and some have become saturated with urine. These should all be replaced. Patients need more structured theraputic activities and supplies to complete such activities! Several activities scheduled every week are either unrealistic or there is a lack of supplies. Rules and regulations should be consistent across units! Corporate and licensing should not announce inspection visits in advance! Training should be thorough and focused on content and not just providing answers! The people (MHAs) that spend the most time working with the children are paid wages that are the same or less than fast food and convienence store workers.

Other Republican-led states have done it. Virginia voters strongly support it. And the state Senate just passed it. But right now, some Republicans in the House of Delegates are standing in the way. If they continue to block Medicaid expansion, they'll be catering to an extreme slice of their own base rather than helping get health care to the state's neediest residents.

Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell is standing in the way of getting affordable health care to nearly 200,000 of the state’s poor and disabled residents—despite the support of Virginia voters. As speaker of the House, Howell plays a key leadership role that impacts the health and welfare of the entire state. From his district in Fredericksburg to Roanoke to Virginia Beach, families know the suffering caused by lack of affordable health care—and are waiting for the House of Delegates, under Speaker Howell’s leadership, to do the right thing and move immediately to expand Medicaid eligibility. Accepting federally funded Medicaid expansion would save lives, save financially-at-risk rural hospitals, improve public health, create jobs, and boost the state economy. Expansion would get affordable medical care to Virginians in the “coverage gap” — those who aren’t currently eligible for the state’s Medicaid program but don’t make enough to qualify for subsidies under Obamacare. Hundreds of thousands of Virginians are in “the gap,” and the majority are the working poor, people who work for low wages and still can’t afford health care. The cost of Medicaid expansion will be paid 100% by federal dollars (that’s money Virginia taxpayers have already sent to Washington) during the first three years. After that, federal support will taper to 90% of the cost by 2020. This is coverage Virginians have already paid for; without expansion, those dollars will go to other states. And polls show there’s bipartisan support for Medicaid expansion. Whether Republican or Democrat, Virginia voters support expanding access to life-saving health care for the state’s neediest residents. Speaker Howell: It’s time to listen to Virginians and stop blocking Medicaid expansion. Let’s get our families and neighbors the health care they need.