On World AIDS Day, President Obama announced he is committing $100 million of the National Institute of Health's budget to find a cure for AIDS. This is a $33 million increase in AIDS cure funding each year for three years and will pay for pivotal new research that will move us all closer to a cure. We want to thank the government officials who made this bold decision possible: Anthony Fauci, MD (head of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases); Jack Whitescarver, PhD (Head of the Office of AIDS Research); Carl Dieffenbach, PhD (Director of the NIH Division of AIDS); Francis Collins, MD PhD (Director of the National Institutes of Health); and President Barack Obama.

The Affordable Care Act is not perfect. But it is in place and can be fixed as the need becomes apparent. And it is a whole lot better than what has been in place for the last several decades. Killing it would be nothing but a huge step backwards.

My neighbors pay their mortgage by donating plasma and yet do not qualify for Medicaid in Kansas. They have health conditions that need care but aren’t getting it. A friend goes without his insulin because he cannot afford to buy it but also does not qualify because he is too poor for Obamacare. Under the Affordable Care Act Kansans who are below 138% of the federal poverty level ($15,856 for an individual and $32,499 for a family of four) are not eligible. This leaves 240,000 Kansans uninsured. It was intended that the Medicaid Expansion would then cover these people but our Governor did not accept it for Kansas. A key provision of the Affordable Care Act is the expansion of the Medicaid program to these Kansans. The federal government will pay most of the costs of financing the Medicaid expansion.

Many people in Mississippi are stuck in the Medicaid/Affordable Health Care gap, my daughter and her family included. She earns more than the poverty level so can't qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for the premium support provided by Affordable Health Care. Our governor opted out of the expanded Medicaid program which has left so many out in the cold.

It is easy to frame any issue to suit one's own agenda. The right wing of this country has framed Obamacare as a government take-over and a fiscally irresponsible action rather than as a modest proposal to help with our nation's health care crisis. The US spends more than two-and-a-half times more on health care per person than most other developed nations in the world. Obamacare is a modest and fiscally responsible step in the right direction of reducing those costs.

This petition is started to preserve the rights of patient's in chronic and intractable pain to get prescribe the medications that they need, and to stop PROP from sabotaging our treatment and our rights.

I’m Keisha Kuma, a mother of three from Georgia, and I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Insurance companies use to label me a pre-existing condition. And now, Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens is telling me this disease is “my fault.” He really said that someone with an undetectable, debilitating and chronic disease is at fault. He actually compared my disease to a car wreck: A pre-existing condition would be you then calling up your insurance agent and saying, 'I would like to get collision insurance coverage on my car.' And your insurance agent says, 'Well, you never had that before. Why would you want it now?' And you say, 'Well, I just had a wreck, it was my fault and I want the insurance company to pay to repair my car.' And that's the exact same thing on pre-existing insurance." He tried to walk back his comments claiming it was a “poor analogy” but clearly he just doesn’t get it. He’s the same guy who said he would do everything in his power to be an “obstructionist” of Obamacare. Will you stand with me to tell Mr. Hudgens that his actions are unacceptable and sign this petition calling on him to resign? When I was first diagnosed in 2010 I was admitted into the hospital for 10 days to learn how to walk again after the left side of my body went numb. Walk again I did. I was able to focus on getting better because I wasn’t worried about the doctors or the bills piling up. I was able to focus on the things that mattered because I had great insurance. I didn't have to worry about becoming a financial burden to my family. But many Americans were not so lucky. Before Obamacare, insurance companies were allowed to deny people like me health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Now the 129 million Americans who are like me and have a pre-existing condition - which is NOT their fault - do not need to live in fear. But the man responsible for making sure Georgians like me can get health insurance is do everything he can to turn me back into a pre-existing condition. We can’t trust him to do his job and implement health care! If Republicans in Congress and Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens had their way and repealed the law, we would go back to the old system where nearly 1 in 5 people who applied for coverage in the individual market was denied coverage. I'm not ready to accept this. And I'm not willing to go back to a world where my health was dependent not on a condition I have, but the whims of insurance companies putting their bottom line over my health. Join me in protecting Obamacare by demanding Hudgens resign or be removed from office. Thank you for your support, Keisha Kuma

Access to safe, comprehensive healthcare is essential to the lives of Michigan women and their families. That’s why Governor Rick Snyder, the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News, and the Michigan Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all agree: the proposal to ban insurance coverage for abortion care is wrong for our state. We cannot imagine telling a victim of rape or a pregnant woman whose child will not survive that she should have had the foresight to purchase extra insurance to cover her medical care. Join the majority of Michiganders: Oppose legislation that restricts access to the medical care necessary to preserve and protect women’s lives.

The Government has known for at least 75 years that asbestos causes cancer, but it has never funded a program to help diagnose and treat veterans, many of whom contracted the disease while serving their country. The time for the VA to help vets exposed to asbestos in the line of duty is long past due. We're simply asking that the VA fulfill its duty to these brave men and women by funding the "Elmo Zumwalt Research and Treatment Center" at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, asap.

Over 126,000 Utahns are without healthcare coverage. Full medicaid expansion would provide this much needed coverage. If the governor refuses to expand or chooses anything other than full expansion, already allocated funds will go to other states rather than coming back to Utah where it can help so many of our fellow Utahns. Join us in telling Governor Herbert to fully expand medicaid.

The Christmas season should be a time of celebrating the teachings of Jesus Christ. I cannot as a Christian sit silently by as Governor Rick Perry allows people to die because of politics. The Medicaid expansion will not cost the state of Texas one penny for the next three years but in that time Medicaid will save nearly 20,000 lives. Isn't saving even one life worth the time it takes you to sign this petition? Please join Texas Christians in urging Governor Rick Perry to listen to his heart and open the doors of health care to the working poor of Texas.

Too many families are marginalized, bankrupted, and suffer with treatable illnesses. Healthcare is a basic human need. Medical services, like education and corrections, should not be profit driven. Footing out-of-pocket health insurance premiums for coverage that is less than adequate has gone on far longer than it should ever have for many working poor families like mine!