This petition has to do with getting rid of insurance companies handling health care. It is time that we join the rest of the developed world in providing health care for all individuals who are citizens or legal tax paying residents of this country with adequate health care that will be covered by any hospital or doctor. It is time that we look at health care as we do police protection and public education. It should be funded by taxes instead of premiums to insurance companies. Everyone should have opportunities for the same kind of care. Doctors and hospitals should not have the right to refuse to care for you because of how your health care is covered. There would no longer be an issue of remaining in your job because of the health care benefits that are provided. You would not lose coverage because you lost your job.

There is an FDA rule instituted during the 1980s, during the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, that prohibits men who have had sex with men since 1977 from donating blood. This rule made sense then, but almost thirty years later there are far more sophisticated and rapid tests that are administered to all prospective blood donors. As the "window period" regarding HIV infection is weeks or months, rather than 34 years, this rule both unnecessarily limits the supply of blood from healthy donors and is discriminatory. I urge the United States to follow the lead of Great Britain, which changed a similar rule there earlier this year.

Governor Sam Brownback recently returned a $31.5 million dollar federal grant to create a Kansas Health Care Exchange System. Kansas was chosen as an early innovator by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This grant's funding was long considered and the Kansas Insurance Commissioner had worked hard to begin a process to save all Kansans money in purchasing health insurance. Governor Brownback out of ideological and political beliefs rejected the federal monies allocated to Kansas.

Hold healthcare executives responsible for the damage they have done to people. In my case these people need to be charged with attempted murder, nothing more nothing less.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board wants to close the children's ward, at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. This would force families to travel with sick children to hospitals in Glasgow, often with poor public transport access. The closure may also have a catastrophic domino effect on other services at the RAH.

The Red Cross has banned gay men from donating blood since the emergence of AIDS in the 1980's. When little was known about the disease that policy might have made some sense, but now banning gay men from donating blood achieves no purpose other than to cut off a group of potential donors as well as to send a message of bigotry. All donated blood is tested for HIV regardless of who donates it. The Red Cross should encourage gay men to donate blood.

TBI raided Appalachian Medical Center, Johnson City, TN in 2007 due to what TBI investigators reported as a "pill mill" that contributed to the death of 47 patients. No charges were filed. The licenses of 3 nurses, employees with Appalachian Medical were suspended. In May, 2011 their licenses were reinstated with the assistance of representatives, Shipley and Ford even though the TBI investigation was still continuing. In April, 2011 Shipley advocated a house amendment to reduce the number of nursing board members that could further risk the health of Tennesseans. Gov. Haslem of Tennesse stated, " I don't like it when people use their leverage to accomplish a personal agenda". Ford's sister was a employee of Appalachian Medical. Shipley identified himself as "the rascal behind the scenes that made it all happen".

Stand up to advertisers who you may upset or lose if you printed regular, in-depth, complete coverage of the benefits of comprehensive, universal heathcare, Improved Medicare for All, Single Payer Healthcare, socialized medicine, whatever you call it.

Providence Health Services, one of the largest hospital groups in the Portland Metro area of Oregon, is under equipped and undereducated about the diagnosis, treatment, and full range of symptoms involved in POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). POTS is a disorder of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), primarily characterized by the symptom that it takes its name from: when you stand up, you can pass out.  When people stand up, gravity starts to take over with your body's blood flow, pulling it down to your legs and abdomen.  In most people, the ANS triggers a slight increase in blood pressure and heart rate, tightening the veins in your legs, and compensates to keep blood flowing normally to your brain.  In people with POTS, things don't quite go as planned.  The ANS overcompensates, increasing the heart rate dramatically.  The veins in the legs don't tighten, and blood pressure doesn't raise, and can often drop.  Blood flow to the brain is slowed, they get less oxygen to the brain, and they can gray out or even pass out completely.  Other common symptoms in people with POTS include nausea, gastrointestinal disorders, heat intolerance, fatigue and more.  POTS is currently affecting an estimated 1.7% of the population, though with the high number of misdiagnoses that most POTS patients receive before their POTS diagnosis, that percentage could be much higher.  POTS is debilitating, ruining peoples' careers, family lives, social activities.  It is also misunderstood, frequently misdiagnosed or mistaken for stress, anxiety, depression, sometimes even bipolar disorder or other more serious psychological disorders.
As an in-home caregiver for a patient with POTS, I've seen many issues with Providence Health Services regarding the education of their providers.  Most have never heard of POTS, and find it "too complex to treat."  Some don't believe in POTS, since there is nothing structurally wrong with the body.  Others know a little about it, but are either going by out-of-date research information, or don't know how to diagnose/treat it.  There are a handful of doctors in the Portland area who are being overwhelmed with patients from all over Oregon and Washington.  Providence Health Systems needs to start educating their providers about how to diagnose POTS, and how to treat it.  I am petitioning them to start an education and awareness campaign within their hospitals and clinics, and invite local POTS patients to speak first-hand about their experiences.

Every day, thousands die because they cannot get replacement organs. Every day, thousands of useful, life-saving organs are destroyed. Changing the wording of the law from a default of "no" to a default of "yes," can double or triple the number of organ donors. With today's medicine, nearly any healthy part of a body can be used to save other people.

This bill was introduced by assembly member Felipe Fuentes to increase access to and participate in CalFresh by removing barriers and simplifying the application process, while simultaneously implementing cost savings efforts. AB6 would help feed hungry California families by eliminating the requirement that aid applicants must be fingerprinted and photographed as a condition of eligibility.

Starting with the McGovern Commission in 1977, we have been told that a healthy diet is low in fat and high in carbohydrates. Despite a lack of scientific evidence to support these claims, the message that fat is "bad" has been repeated so many times that it is now accepted as an unquestionable truth. As a result of these misguided recommendations obesity, diabetes, and heart disease have reached epidemic proportions.