TOUCHED BY LYME: Squeaking under the wire for White House petition
White House Lyme petition needs 25,000–not 100,000–signatures.
Over the past year, President Barack Obama’s program called We the People, has allowed people to launch petitions on any subject they wanted to bring to the attention of the White House. Any petition that gathered at least 25,000 signatures within a month would garner an official response from the Obama Administration.
Well, about 10 million signatures on various petitions have been gathered in that time, and now the administration is raising the bar. New petitions now must get 100,000 signatures within a month to capture presidential attention. That’s a pretty high threshold to meet. But this only applies to new petitions. Ones that had already been started only have to meet the original 25,000 signatures.
Luckily for the Lyme community, somebody in Massachusetts started such a petition on January 11, just a days before the new rules went into effect. Here’s what it says:
We petition the Obama administration to:
Reform the Infectious Disease Society of America Treatment Guidelines for Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is at epidemic levels, posing a significant threat to public health. Lyme can lead to chronic and debilitating effects if not properly treated. Lyme is leaving masses of people in progressive states of illness and financial ruin. The Infectious Diseases Society of America’s treatment guidelines are to blame, they promote the idea that Lyme is a simple, rare illness that is easily cured with 30 days of antibiotics. This is not true. Insurance companies are denying payments for medications even when deemed medically necessary after 30 days. Doctors who treat Lyme patients are being investigated and prosecuted for not conforming to such guidelines. Please sign this petition to reform IDSA guidelines and allow doctors NOT Insurance companies, to decide what is medically necessary.
There’s a little bit of hassle involved with signing it. You have to create a “WhiteHouse.gov” account and verify your email address. Then go back to the page to click the “sign the petition” button.
Because we only have to get 25,000 signatures, instead of four times that many, it’s a golden opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Please sign it now, get your family and friends to sign it, post it on your Facebook page and forward the link on Twitter. Let’s do this.
Click here for more details and to sign the petition.
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
It’s been more than enough suffering for people with Lyme Dosease, including myself. I’m 25 years old and instead of spending my savings on a home or starting my life, I’m paying medical bills because my treatment, which has gotten me back to healthy, is not accepted by the CDC, IDSA, and my PRIVATE health insurance. This is an epidemic across the entire country! Please start making changes NOW.
enough lives have been ruined by wrong advice
Stop pretending this is not as severe or serious as it is and HELP PEOPLE.
This is a serious disease that needs attention.
To many times certain desieses are overlooked because of one reason or another please do not let this be one.
This act to hide this disease and treatment from the public is criminal. Because of difficulty culturing this bacteria, it is thought that many diseases are related with similar bacteria, including crohns, Alzheimer’s, Scleroderma, ALS, to name a few. What are our tax dollars doing besides hurting us? Physicians are fed a line of doggy stuff when educated regarding these diseases.
My daughter has been living with this horrible lyme disease for almost five years, and there are days when she is so sick she is unable to get out of bed…yet they say this is not a chronic disease??? My daughter and so many other people are suffering and need the support and help of our government and doctors to find a cure for this dreadful disease..