In North Carolina, there are 720,000 uninsured adults who would be eligible for Medicaid if the state expanded its Medicaid program. Providing such coverage will help people gain access to the care they need, which can improve health outcomes. In addition, the expansion would add about $1.4 billion to North Carolina's economy and total employment would increase by about 23,000 jobs.

legalize medical marijuana in Texas. It's been approved in other states and we here in the lone star state should have the benefits of this natural substance too.

Create a Georgia Health Exchange today. We should be making decisions about Georgia's health care, not abdicating control of our health care to the Federal Government. Georgians should establish an Exchange and manage their own Health Care Rights. Not to do so is short-sighted, anti State's Rights and counter-productive to the safety of all Georgians. .

This petition is to limit the government provided medical benefits to the approximately the same level as the citizens the elected officials govern. I am sick of paying thousands of dollars per month as an individual for me and my family while elected officials who are supposed to be representing me, get and give compensation to large corporations that turn around and charge me MORE money for medical coverage, that the corporations more often not simply deny anyway.

I feel that Health Care Benefits for the State of Texas should be a priority. Budget cuts to our current Health Care System would be devastating to seniors,disabled, and children. What is more important people or cutting the budget? The poorly disadvantaged would be placed in a very compromising position.

Mental Health again has become an issue in this Country. Former Governor Carter's wife put this issue before the state and developed a plan of concern, along with the federal laws on how the state would addressed it at the forefront. I think again Mental Health and the State's actions should be put on the table to be discussed

Medical Marijuana needs to be legalized in every state. I myself have struggled with depression and insomnia that has only been cured by marijuana. I am not a criminal, but because of these ridiculous outdated laws, i am. I am not the only one who feels this way either.

My parent's, godparent's, & myself or also on medicare. We need no cut in this area, to keep Healthcare our first goal to the American people, that has worked hard for years on a job & deserve Medicare. I have neices, nephews, & grandchildrens that need the best Education. And also need to be protected while obtaining Education. GUN VIOLENCE IN SCHOOL'S need to be addressed, because i lost my brother, MARLON LYDELL WELLS, to gun violence. He was shot to death, February 17, 1992 at Glen Oaks High.

YES CAN NOT GET MEDICAL INSURANCE AT A AFFORDABLE RATE FOR ME OR MY FAMILY.

As someone who is on SSD and has Medicare supplementary due to medical disability, I simply, along with millions of Americans who rely on our social safety nets for our very existence ,not to mention SS does not add ONE DIME to the deficit, STOP PUNISHING US!!! I have to take NINE RX medications a month to live and as it is, paying for my meds a month before our commercial insurance ded/coins is satisfied for other medical expenses, bills to keep our household basics and mortgage paid, we're always broke before the next payday. Without my SSD and MC, we'll lose our home!!! Cut the deficit on someone else's backs for a change!!!

Unfortunately, the ideal of streamlining mental health treatment can be turned on its axis by forces beyond our control. Taking the subway one stop past sanity, the state of Texas has decided to be tightfisted; free falling to dead last among all 50 states in mental health expenditures. In turn, this has tipped the scale in favor of astronomical numbers of people needing services juxtaposed to fewer professionals with lower pay and benefits. Waiting lists have swelled unabated in some areas. Psychiatrists, case managers, and those in the trenches are having difficulty shouldering the load of mental health patients that get services. These unappreciated professionals are dedicated, self-sacrificing, and compassionate yet their pay and benefits barely rise above the threshold of most janitorial jobs. Even the most skilled service coordinators, with time management creativity, can’t clone themselves to be at 50 places at once. Pinched for time, the franchise mentality has taken hold as patients are rushed through the psychiatry drive-thru, each receiving a therapeutic happy meal. Mc-therapy is taking the place of measured, time-spent, palliative modalities that foster better outcomes. Feeding the soul/psyche is immeasurably more complex than feeding the body. Meager spending and the DSHS paradigm shift to Resiliency and Disease Management has resulted in turning away droves of people who do not fit neatly into the diagnostic trifecta: schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and major depression. People with personality disorders, dissociative disorders, and anxiety disorders are dumped cargo; jettisoned out of public services with no safety parachute. Paying little homage to mental health care has a price tag; one of them being the Texas penal system is the new makeshift hospital for mental health consumers. Emergency rooms and hospitals also absorb the overflow, but what never seems to factor into this is the immense human suffering that results. Why are people left in the unforgivable throes of mental illness with no relief in the state of Texas?

Far too many citizens in Illinois are uninsured or under-insured. Far too many of our health insurance premium dollars go to profit and to enriching the CEOs. Far too many of our health insurance premium dollars go to finding ways to deny claims. It is time to stop this insanity! Healthcare is a human right enshrined in our Illinois Constitution. Preamble We, the People of the State of Illinois... in order to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the people; maintain a representative and orderly government; eliminate poverty and inequality; assure legal, social and economic justice; provide opportunity for the fullest development of the individual; insure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; and secure the blessings of freedom and liberty to ourselves and our posterity - do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State of Illinois.