I am so excited. HCAN called today and said that Rep George Miller asked for letters to bring to the White House for his meeting with the President tomorrow and asked if it was okay for them to submit mine!
If it wasn't for Kid Oakland's diaryrequesting letters to Obama, I don't think I would have written. I thought my story was boring. So thanks Kid Oakland. He used my letter in this diary which inspired me to sent my lettereverywhere including HCAN.
I hope you don't mind I am going to repost my letter.
Dear President Obama,
I have trouble writing so please bear with me. I was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis in 2000. Part of my disability is brain lesions which
makes certain cognitive functions difficult for me. I am very grateful
that I had insurance when diagnosed because there is no way I would have
been able to get insurance after I was diagnosed. I know that if I lose the
insurance I have now, I will not be able to get it again. If I had been
diagnosed a year earlier, I would not have had insurance. I was working for
a temp agency. I care about the people that do not have insurance.
I managed to stay employed at a permanent job after the temp agency and keep
my health insurance until 1/29/09. Managing multiple sclerosis and working
full time took up all my energy. I was told by my neuropsychologist, who gave me c
ognitive evaluations, that if I was not working full-time, she
would not think that I could due to the MS. This was more than a year before I
stopped working.
My insurance company routinely denied coverage for medications prescribed by
my neurologist. They also made me get some of my medications reauthorized
every 3 months. I regularly had to call in sick to fight with the insurance
company to get my medicine. I never lost an appeal. They denied me just to
see if they could get away with it. They know not everyone can fight them,
and no one can fight them all the time. I also had to miss work until the
appeal went through so I could get the medicine I needed in order to be able
to function at work. I know there are other disabled people out there doing
their best to maintain full time employment. And it is a struggle for some
of us, and the added job of fighting with health insurance companies to get
the medications that allow you to function is not right. The tea baggers
call us lazy but tht is not thhe case.
One medication which is an essential medication was denied so frequently
that I finally called the California insurance complaint line. The state
employee I talked with took my story and a judgment was issued that no
insurance company can deny me that medication for 25 yrs. The woman told me
that people are often denied chemo. The insurance company denies people
that are too sick to fight.
Every health insurance policy should be required to have to have a two
warnings:
- All benefits are subject to your ability to fight for them.
- All benefits are subject to our ability to get away with denying them.
I managed to work until my daughter graduated from college. I am a single
mom. I had my daughter when I was 17 years old. She graduated from Yale
last year. I am very proud of her.
I was approved for long term disability through a private insurance company.
My application for early disability retirement is pending. While it is
pending, I can keep my health insurance, but I have to pay for it. It costs
$660.00 a month. I pay another $250-300 monthly for co-pays for doctors'
appointments and medication. This is almost half my income. I am grateful
to have insurance and am not complaining. But if I wasn't spending this
money on premiums it would be going into my local economy.
Please Mr. President, give disabled people a chance to remain as productive
as possible for as long as possible. Let us use our energy to stay employed
instead of fighting with health insurance companies. Stop the insurance
companies from denying care to the most vulnerable people.
Give us a choice for a strong public option that is available on day one,
accessible to all, and affordable by having the rates are linked to Medicare
rates.
I volunteered for and donated to your campaign. I am proud that you are our
President. I am concerned that you will not follow through with your promise for
real health care reform. Please don't let us down, Mr. President.
UPDATE:
Please check out Nyceve's action diary
Even if you think you have nothing to say, like I did, it might be something people need to hear. Please Call!
Slinkerwink has action diary, here.
mcjoan has an actin Alert here.
Thank you all for the kind comments. I am reading them all if I don't reply it is just because I keep typing thank you!