NEWS: Will Gov. Cuomo sign or veto NY Lyme bill?
Lyme doctor protection legislation still awaits governor’s signature. It’s time for your voice to be heard.
From New York activists working on passage of this bill:
Despite continued scientific evidence that Lyme disease can persist after initial treatment, doctors who will treat persistent Lyme are targeted by costly disciplinary board investigations which can lead to the loss of their licenses.
The medical disciplinary board of NYS, (the Office of Professional Medical Conduct, the OPMC) has openly admitted to us that they “get their best complaints from the insurance companies.” And, obviously, long term treatment of Lyme disease, often including intravenous antibiotics, is far more expensive for the insurance companies.
A bill to stop this harassment has been passed by the legislature and is on the way to Governor Cuomo. Please help Lyme patients get this bill signed into law.
1) If you’re a resident of NY State, please go to:
https://www.votervoice.net/NYSCOALITION/Campaigns/36501/Respond
Please remember to add a personal note to this form so that it is counted as a letter – either your own experience with Lyme or that of a person you know or just your desire for medical freedom.
2) If you don’t live in NYS, please call 518-474-8390 and ask that Governor Cuomo sign S7854 the Lyme protection bill, so that physicians are free to treat chronic Lyme disease without fear of losing their licenses.
To read the bill, go to: http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S7854-2013
Sign it already Gov Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo:
Please sign this bill – it will help save our families, our lives, our right to choose the treatments available, our health and welfare.
This bill will impact many 1000s. Please make sure New York protects our citizens.
Please sign, as this could make a difference for Lyme Disease and Coinfection sufferers all over the US.
Please don’t wait another day! We need you Governor Cuomo! Please sign the Lyme bill. My family and I would greatly appreciate your support.
This should be a Nation Wide “Lyme doctor protection legislation still awaits governor’s signature. It’s time for your voice to be heard.” I am going to send this to all the Senate and Congress in this state.
Please sign the bill.There are so many Lyme victims in America.Please help us.We are in great pain and we need your help.Most of us are in limbo and without money or a job.We need help now not later.Ive had this disease for over 15 years.This disease is spreading at a alarming rate and needs to be addressed.Please act now!!!
07/17/2014 via lymedisease.org Got this email “NEWS: Will Gov. Cuomo sign or veto NY Lyme bill?” at link: https://lymedisease.org/news/lyme_disease_views/will-cuomo-sign-lyme-bill.html#comment-10675
“A bill to pass for not to penalize Doctors for treating patients for Lyme Disease – LD/Chronic Lyme Disease – CLD, and the newest saying and documenting of a person with CLD as a patient of “Post Chronic Lyme Disease Syndrome”. This does not change the way CLD has Trashed My Life and My Families and Friends…. This actually scares me very much, and any one person that does not find this Frightening, need to do some research. For even if some one is that Ignorant, I do not want anyone person to understand or go thru what Misery I have been thru because of CLD and the way the current Medical Society of the USA, This should be a “One Nation Under One God Bill”, for as the maps I’ve seen on the ILADS Web page and other Lyme related sites, it is my conclusion that all State’s within the United States of America will be Infected 100% within the next few Years. So I am going to pass this on to all Government Officials of this state of Minnesota. Sincerely, RockonTed TKS
Dear Governor, our family has personally experienced the terrible effects of late diagnosis of Lyme. Please protect the doctors who are brave enough to help. Thank you.
By signing, many Lyme sufferers have a chance at finding–and fording–treatment that can not necessarily cure the disease, but make it more bearable. That’s what we all hope for.
Please Governor sign the bill Lyme disease is a horrible disease.
Thank you
Please sign the Lyme Bill that the House and Senate have passed. Too many peoples’ lives have been ruined by the lack of lyme literate doctors, who are afraid to treat appropriately for fear they will lose their licenses. As a lyme sufferer, and former New York State resident, I know all too well what happens when the disease goes undiagnosed. Thank you.
As a frequent traveler to L.I. and a former Long Island Resident who sees a New York State doctor (can’t find one in NJ) for my chronic and relapsed Lyme disease, I urge you to sign the legislation to protect the licenses of all doctors who treat very ill chronic Lyme disease patients. There are other chronic diseases which doctors treat long term, such as chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis. It’s just nonsense to deny treatment to only ONE group of chronically ill patients; those who have the diagnosis of chronic Lyme Disease because they suffer just as the RA patient does, but with multi-system involvement!
Please sign the bill. We have a family member in need of support and help.
Thank you.
Governor Cuomo~Please sign the bill. This disease is real and truly effects thousands. We never knew what we know now. No one who was young and active in sports as our daughter would purposely ‘act’ like she could barely function and have days she must stay in bed. Not until this disease effects more politicians will they realize this can happen to anyone. Your name recognition alone with this bill will make a difference. Thank you.
sign.
Victims of this poorly understood disease need all the help they can get. Long time treatment is crucial to their care. If you don’t sign this many sick people will remember and hold it against you.
Please admit that all is not known about Lyme Disease and let Doctors try to solve the problem without losing their licenses. Insurance companies trying to save money have the last word now, not those qualified to practice medicine. As a result, many people are suffering, and can find no respite from this disease. If it hasn’t yet, it will some day affect you personally, it is going to affect all of us.
Chronic Lyme often requires a longer duration of prescription drugs. Do not penalize doctors for doing their jobs. Thanks to all who care.
Please Gov. Cuomo sign the Lyme Bill. I have suffered for over a year from chronic Lyme. This disease has dibilitated me to affected my nervous system till I was unable to function, depression, anxiety, no sleep, no energy to name a few of the issue associated with chronic Lyme Disease. What is presently a 21 day treatment only allows this disease burrow deeper into people’s system. Let’s put the rule book down and let Doctors do their job to properly treat this disease until they see fit, not as the rule sits. This Bill needs signing into law and all tick disease sufferers need to be treated properly by a physician and not have their hands tied by the law
Gov. Cuomo, We have a 10 year old son who has been suffering for more than a year with pain, nausea, insomnia, anxiety, depression, fatigue. His life and our life has been turned upside down by Lyme Disease. I am a 2x cancer survivor and that seemed easy compared to what our son is battling right now. More research and insurance coverage is needed. We pay a mortgage for our family insurance now, but 90% of his Lyme treatment is not covered by it. This is slowly destroying our family. Our story is no different than many stories you will hear. We just want a chance to fight Lyme and save our son and many others from this debilitating disease.
PLEASE SIGN THIS BILL AND GET IT INTO EFFECT IMMEDIATELY! My daughter has suffered with lyme for 14 years and has been undertreated due to the existing laws and therefore is in latter stages of the disease, having suffered from kidney, liver, pneumonia (4x), heart and now brain and neurological problems. She is in need of your help, as well as thousands of other people, who have this debilitating and life-threatening disease. Please unleash the laws that are prohibiting the doctors from treating them and the insurance companies from covering the prescriptions they need to help them.
Suggest interested readers review the front page Poughkeepsie Journal article of 11/30/14: “Lyme Bill Stalls with Cuomo Staffers” There is clearly an intentional effort by the governor’s staff to delay and restrict information about the governor’s failure to sign this bill. Ten days after 12/31/14, an unsigned bill will automatically be vetoed. This issue demands immediate action and answers, not sideways comments or vague excuses for the delay.