Critical for many of us is that the House version included a public option, whereas the Senate version does not.
I am lucky - I was accepted for Social Security Disability, and I am on Medicare. I also have good private insurance from my husband's job. What this bill would do would be to extend the same privilege I have, to everybody else out there, without having to pass these demeaning tests to "prove" we are somehow worthy of the nation's attention.
Of course, many tests specific to our disease aren't covered by either, thanks to the CDC's insistence that such testing is "inappropriate" for patients with a CFS diagnosis, but there are many other health problems besides The Disease that remain unaddressed because patients have not the means to seek treatment. And perhaps after research shows relationships among XMRV, "CFS", and such tests that currently require cash as natural killer cell function, the Rnase-L defect, T cell ratios, and many different viruses and microbes. Some day these tests, and treatment for the resulting conditions, WILL be approved by CDC, and then a public health plan would have to cover it.
For our many friends with The Disease who have no health insurance whatsoever, and not enough income to buy it no matter what the price, please write your Congressman and Senators, asking that the public option be preserved in the final version of the bill.
As always, you will find your own Senators by going to <http://www.senate.gov> and following the directions; you can find your Congressman by going to <http://www.house.gov> and following the directions.
Thank you.
Mary M. Schweitzer, Ph.D.
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