DO NOT TAKE AWAY TRICARE PRIME RIGHTS TO ANY RETIREES Our military retirees have all worked hard and served 20 or more years for their country lets not abandon them now by taking away their rights to TriCare Prime. Many retirees military families served in the military with the promise that they would have these benefits for their families after being retired. It is un just to take away these benefits for any retirees! CBO Studies Removing Retirees from Tricare Prime Military.comJan 21, 2014 | by Richard Sisk Barring working-age military retirees from TRICARE Prime would be the most cost-effective way of slowing the growth of Defense Department health care expenses that have jumped 130 percent from 2000-2012, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. The non-partisan CBO explored various options to include changing the eligibility for TRICARE Prime which would produce the biggest savings in the Pentagon's health care budget -- nearly $90 billion over 10 years, the CBO report estimated. The CBO analysis, released last week, was prepared at the request of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chairman of the House Budget Committee. Current health care costs for DoD amount to about $52 billion annually, the CBO said, and only a formula involving increased cost-sharing for retirees who use TRICARE "has the potential to generate significant savings for DoD," the CBO said. All other approaches, such as better management and eliminating waste, "would not address the primary drivers of health care costs for DoD," the CBO said. The biggest savings would come from changes in current programs to "make working-age retirees and their families ineligible for TRICARE Prime, the most costly program for DoD, but allow them to continue using other TRICARE plans after paying an annual fee," the CBO said. "Shifting current cost-sharing arrangements so that beneficiaries pay a greater percentage of their health care costs would reduce DoD's spending significantly, primarily by encouraging people to leave TRICARE in favor of other providers," the CBO said. "It also would encourage those who continued to participate in TRICARE to use fewer services." The proposed TRICARE changes were expected to generate major opposition from veterans service organizations. Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, questioned the CBO numbers but said the report following on other major program initiatives advocated by DoD indicated that "the Pentagon is opening up a new front in the war on retirees. This is a threat to the all-volunteer force," Davis said. The VFW and other service organizations are currently battling cuts to the cost-of-living adjustment for working-age military retirees under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 worked out by Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. RELATED TOPICS TRICARE Richard Sisk

(Background) As more secular hospitals merge with religiously affiliated ones, nearly half of WA state hospital beds are now controlled by Catholic ideology that prohibits contraceptive counseling and contraceptive methods including condoms, birth control pills, morning after pills, IUDs, vasectomies and tubal ligations; and that prohibits fertility assistance, termination of pregnancy and the provision of information and referrals about the end of life option of "death with dignity", all of which are legal in WA State. Non-Catholics and Catholics alike increasingly find themselves in situations in which the only health care available is subject to these restrictions dictated by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. WA State has the highest percentage of religious control of hospital beds in the U.S. and its continuing to increase (26% in 2010, 45% so far in 2014). Some business owners refuse to include the same legal health care services in their company's health insurance plans. Some pharmacy owners refuse to dispense certain legal contraception products. Some health care providers continue to discriminate against LGBT families. Substantial amounts of public funds in the form of Medicaid, Medicare, and Public Hospital District tax levies are paid to those hospitals and providers. Should religions, based solely on their ideologies, be allowed to deny legal health 'standard of care' to the general public who pay those taxes? It's time to say, "Stop!" We believe that in medical care, the patient's rights must come first with all legal medical "Standards of Care" and "Best Practices" available for all residents of our state. Washington citizens have worked for decades to place into law the Reproductive Privacy Act, the Death with Dignity Act, and Marriage Equality because in America individuals, not churches, decide matters of conscience. State officials are responsible to make sure all these benefits are continually available to all WA residents.

You probably know someone with such diseases, or soon will. These diseases are growing rapidly, and the lack of adequate tests for the various disease states is urgently needed. From multiple personal family experiences, I know that these diseases are either dismissed or mis-diagnosed; AND are under-reported, and as a result are too often NOT treated promptly. As a scientist, myself (currently undergoing treatment), and from observations of family members and friends who have or are suffering from one of these illnesses:: It is clear, that the voices of a broader representation of those involved in the actual practice of treating chronic tick-illnesses, as well as patients and patient advocates must be heard, to provide a more balanced input so that proper public health policies and guidelines can be forthcomming. Let's not waste billions on wars, and armaments... Let's work with other governments, to address this widespread publich health menace. It could make people well, promote the public good, and further the understanding or antibiotic resistant threats.. Please join in this effort to make the world a better place.

I know many people--family, friends--who have inadequate health care because they have no insurance. Also I cannot see why legislators would want to pass up this golden opportunity to increase jobs and income for the state.

We have been working on children's vision issues for several years and are alarmed at the number of children and youth who are not doing as well as they should in school because they have never had a comprehensive vision examination that includes assessment of their binocular vision problems. SB 430 in the California Legislature would check all children for binocular vision issues by the third grade. All states should check children well before they start school, by the time they are in the third grade and every other year thereafter. This is a big year for National implementation of the ACA and state initiatives like SB 430 and the State Health Care Innovation Plan in Washington State, which should be paying attention to binocular vision problems of children and youth.

The Private Option is a vitally important program to the working poor in our state. It covers people who are starting their own businesses, the self-employed, as well as students who are over 27 and looking to further their careers. It assists 215,000 low-income Arkansans who could not previously afford or were deemed "ineligible" due to pre-existing conditions to finally have health coverage, provide much-needed annual checkups, immunizations, mental health services, as well as saving an estimated 1,100 lives every year in our state. The program will also save the state money while injecting nearly a billion dollars to local health providers. As of February 26, there are 127,051 Arkansans who are currently enrolled and benefiting from the program, with a total of 189,000 applications submitted. The Private Option helps to lower the median age of the Arkansas Insurance Marketplace, which will help keep insurance rates on the exchange lower. As you may have heard, the Private Option is under attack by some in the legislature. Some of the more conservative members of the House of Representatives and Senate would like to derail the Private Option. This would kick these hard working Arkansans off their new plans, as well as cost the state money. Arkansas has a provision for a balanced budget. In 2014 alone Arkansas will save $89 million by implementing the Private Option. If the legislature successfully defunds the Private Option these savings will go away and one of two things will happen: 1) The legislature will have to repeal tax cuts, raising taxes on Arkansas families. 2) The state's budget will have to cut vital services to replace the money that the state is losing in lieu of defunding the Private Option, further harming our state. Please help to ensure that the Private Option stays available to our state by signing and SHARING this petition and urge our lawmakers to re-authorize the Private Option!

Ivan Clark Coleman and many other are finished taking psychotropic RX Drugs, Benzoids and Pain Medication that effects the mind, body and soul, Meanwhile leaving our bodies to suffer negative post side effects. Medical Marijuana has been proven effective without the major side effects associated with Modern Homeopathic Medicine.

Alot of women including myself have suffered loss of infants due to hospitals not giving them oxygen and treatments to help them live longer. Hospitals let these poor innocent babies die even if they have a slight chance at living. My son was born breathing and moving and was left to die because the hospital had the option to not help him breathe even when i begged them too.

Our son Robby as a penniless law student was forced to wait until gravely ill to seek ER care. As a consequence, the infections were way out of control and forced him to resign from law school. There are more than 242,000 others in the same boat due to Jindal's gap created by his stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid.

I am a medical marijuana patient on disability. I can rarely afford medicine because of the high costs. The medical marijuana law currently allows dispensaries to choose who gets free or reduced cost medicine. I would like to amend that guideline to make it state free medicine for financial hardship cases. These are patients at poverty level whom would go without medicine, such as people on disability and low income senior citizens. The dispensaries are non-profit and are supposed to be set up to help patients. The MA. DPH would decide which patients are financial hardship cases, and only those individuals would be eligible for free medicine.

Thousands of Multiple Sclerosis patients are getting worse each day, when currently used medications are not working for them or their body refuses to accept the medication. Another Option is needed and this Option Should be Lemtrada The FDA on December 30, 2013 Denies the use of Lemtrada for MS Patients. THIS was A sad day for people with more active Multiple Sclerosis. Lemtrada has been approved worldwide, but not good enough for us it seems, in the USA. We are more than 400,000 strong (living with MS) in the USA WE NEED YOUR VOTE to give another OPTION to those that Can benefit from this medication; hoping to keep them from severe disability. YES, WE NEED YOUR VOTE. Also we need you to write directly. WE NEED YOU TO send emails. – We need this request to go Viral -- • Let us FLOOD the OFFICE of this FDA committee with emails, WITH the information shown above. • Please copy and paste what is tyoed and attach your name to that email and then send to: [email protected] where the communications are reviewed and forwarded to appropriate individuals for response. In contacting the office of Ms. Glendolynn Johnson, who staffs the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee, I was advised that the Moveon.org petition, and all communication voicing consumer or prospective patient views, should go to [email protected] where the communications are reviewed and forwarded to appropriate individuals for response.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are painful, often debilitating diseases that can seriously impact patients' quality of life, and IBD affects 1.4 million Americans. IBD can also be very difficult to treat. There are few medication options, and those medications can cause side effects from headaches and hair loss to dangerously low white and red blood cell counts, liver toxicity, lymphoma, and even death. Even on these potent drugs, many patients can't achieve remission. Fecal microbial transplant (FMT) is a treatment option with very few side effects, and numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in treating IBD. Unfortunately, the FDA recently classified fecal matter as a drug and a biologic agent. Now IBD patients can only get FMT through clinical trials, which most patients don't have access to. IBD patients need access to FMT, a safe and effective treatment that could drastically improve many lives. Please urge the FDA to allow IBD patients access to FMT.