The Institute of Medicine on 7/29/11 reported that the FDA process of clearing implanted medical devices for the U.S. market is fatally flawed and should be scrapped. Joint replacement is now the #1 expenditure of Medicare. The FDA charter must be updated from the 1976 OLD version to provide substantially greater safeguards for patients.

We need your help because people have a right to die at home among people who love them and in familiar environments. Expedited Medicaid Waiver application reviews for home health care are no longer available to hospice patients because we have reached our maximum number of program participants. We must create and reserve 200 "slots" for hospice patients and continue the city's previous efforts to expedite these applications.

Currently the FDA is mostly funded by application fees submitted by big pharmaceutical corporations for approval of their newest drugs. Its top tier officials are also former execs from these same companies. The FDA operates autonomously with no accountability to any branch of government, yet they're responsible for our public health. Time for reform!

Federal and State governments are turning to Medicaid for cuts in the very cost-saving community living programs and these cuts would force people with disabilities and the elderly into more expensive institutions.

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.