NEWS: Massachusetts lawmakers propose Lyme insurance bill
It would require insurance coverage for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. There is a short time to gather co-sponsors.
Update: As of Jan. 28, 2015, this bill has 71 co-sponsors in the House and 27 in the Senate. Deadline for co-sponsors to sign is Feb. 2. Please use the Voter Voice links below to contact your legislators before then.
From the Massachusetts Lyme Legislative Task Force:
Massachusetts residents, we need your help! House Docket 469/Senate Docket 985, An Act Relative to Lyme Disease Treatment Coverage, has been filed in the House by Rep. David Linsky and in the Senate by Sen. Anne Gobi. This legislation would provide insurance coverage for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, when ordered by a licensed physician.
Everyone in Massachusetts can contribute to this important effort right now by urging your legislators to co-sponsor. A large number of co-sponsors will strengthen the bill and make it more likely to pass. Please act now, because co-sponsors must sign on within two weeks of the filing.
An easy way for you to contact your legislators has been set up. After you enter your address, the “Voter Voice” system identifies your house representative and your senator, and provides a simple way to reach them. A sample message is included.
Click here to send a phone message.
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Note: these docket numbers will change once a bill number is assigned. We will keep you informed on MassachusettsLyme@yahoogroups.com, or email us at lymebill@gmail.com.
Please also note: If you encounter lawmakers who oppose this effort for any reason, please email us at lymebill@gmail.com. This feedback helps us to formulate constructive strategies to address our opposition.
Sincerely,
The Massachusetts Lyme Legislative Task Force
Full text of the bill:
Name: | District/Address: |
David Paul Linsky | 5th Middlesex |
[Pin Slip] |
This bill is important. Lyme Disease is devastating.
I want this bill passed as a Lyme Disease survivor. I had to fight to be tested. Lived with Lyme for at least two months until I was so sick with fever MD had to test me.
Please pass this bill. My cousin has Lyme Disease and I have personally seen the devastating effects It has on her and her family. As a Registerd Nurse, I am appalled and ashamed of the treatment (or lack of) these patients are receiving. As a country we must address this situation immediately!!
Please pass this Bill. Our son has been suffering and battling Lyme disease for many years now. The cost of treatment is prohibitive. He has been unable to work, steadily, for quite a few years. Lyme is such a debilitation disease. His illness has been a physical, professional and monetary burden on him and his young family.
Please pass Bill 469!
Please make sure this bill is passed to cover people with Lyme disease
I waa denied IV treatment with Lyme meningitis/encephalitis even when I couldn’t hold down the oral medication at the high dose needed to get me well, then to add insult to injury, I was denied transportation to get to LLMD when the reason given was Lyme Disease. So five years refused test and diagnosis from multiple doctors and 16 years later still suffering tremendously with a disease if they had only treated immeadiately would have prevent all of this. I missed out on so much trapped in so many different ways by Lyme Disease. Please pass the bill.
forgot I had ten days to dispute it. But I was too sick too weak just as I am now. This simple paperwork is impossible to do. I have contant migraines and memory loss along with possible brain damage. My children lost a happy healthy mom. I lost my life, who I was and anything I could have become. I was in school and had to quit could never work, and struggling to get threw each day for years. I had some hope but took a turn for the worse a few years ago. I am really hopeless at this point i cant seem to tolorate oral medication and will try again but I am so sick again I have barely enough energy to do the basics. I have not been able to return to school or work. I was sure once I got diagnosed I would get treatment and get better. That was thirteen years ago. No such luck. I have been outright neglected by most MDs because I have A controversial disease. It is chronic Lyme but only because late stage Lyme Disease is denied more aggressive treatment that is needed by Masshealth and so our my rights to choose treatment or be informed by my doctors. Then the transportation is refused. If I had any other diseases it would not be denied. If my doctor had run the test when I told her of my flu like symptoms or a year later looked into and properly fully treated menegiyus cause by Lyme and diagnosis of lyme was made I would have been able to go back to school and with my A-B average graduate and hold a full time job and provide for my children. I was denied a fighting chance all these years. What a waist on disability a treatable disease left to fester a mother dead. I died, I am nothing left of who I was, nothing but the living dead. And with the CDC admitting Epidemic I want anyone else who gets bit by a tick to have a fair fighting chance to win over Lyme
Please pass this bill, it is so sad we have to beg for treatment to get better. This is a devastating disease that has taken over so many people lives. All we want is to feel well , work , and enjoy life with our families like everyone else. We can’t get treatment unless we have the money to pay out of pocket or else we remain I’ll. this is very important please help the lyme community in healing and treatment. Thank you
The situation that our CDC and the IDSA has created for Lyme patients is –
in a word – inhumane.
Yes, of course. HHS is a giant, heartless bureaucracy out of control. Which would you prefer? Paying a private practitioner who profits from curing you, or paying the government that profits from killing you? Our survival depends upon free markets and the freedom to chose: free choice in doctors, treatments, and health insurance companies. No more government regulations! Augh !!!!!
Please, please, please, get off this socialist bandwagon. The road to hell is always paved with good intentions. If you want to help Lyme victims find good insurance policies, write your US Senators to pass HR 3121 which has already cleared the House. It is a wonderful bill. It will help ALL Americans find an affordable policy amongst 1700 companies to chose from across all 50 state borders. The free market will save us, not the corrupt government. There is no legal recourse under the government. You will like this. Your hearts will jump for joy!
Read the summary of HR 3121, The American Health Care Reform Act:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3121
Save lives, please pass this bill
It baffles my mind that people’s lives are so easily disregarded by the medical community. Real help must come soon. If we now have to legislate to get care for each affliction, then I guess Lyme is a good place to start.
I was on antibiotic treatment for 3 years. A lot of out of pocket expenses. Hopefully Mass. will be the first to help victims of this disease. NY has a comparable bill sitting on Governor Cuomo’s desk unsigned.
Please pass this bill. My son had lyme disease a few years back, and to this day I feel he suffers from chronic headaches, muscle aches, and always very tired. This is so important for it affects thousands of people.
Thank you
Please pass this bill to cover people with Lyme disease.
Please pass this bill for people with Lyme disease.
Please help find a cure to many our now affected by this awful disease make people aware how serious this disease is.
We need this on a national level.