S. 1955 will be devastating for millions of people with diabetes across th [View All]

Dear DU friends,
Some of you know I have a child with juvenile diabetes(type 1) The republicans are threatening the lives of diabetics by passing the following legislation. It got through the HELP committee and is now going to the floor. Please make a call to stop this. don't let this go even if no one in your family has diabetes. Many children with type 1 have no family history of this. Information as follows:

This Is It.

S. 1955 will be devastating for millions of people with diabetes across the country.

With your help, we have passed laws requiring insurers to cover diabetes education, equipment, and supplies in small business health policies in 46 states. To date, you have helped protect those 46 state laws from being rolled back by opposing misguided bills in your state legislature or by opposing AHP legislation in Congress.

Without question, these 46 state laws face their gravest threat yet from a bill in the US Senate.

S. 1955, also known as the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, would not only allow the creation of AHPs that can skirt the 46 state laws for small business health plans, it would also allow all state-regulated health insurance policies to bypass those laws. This means that in addition to small business health plans, all state-regulated health insurance -- like individual policies, for example -- would also lose their guarantee of required coverage of lifesaving diabetes items.

Supporters of this bill believe they are helping more Americans get health insurance coverage. However, coverage under these policies either covers diabetes needs inadequately or prices them out of reach of many Americans if it covers those needs at all. In short, S. 1955 will be devastating for millions of people with diabetes across the country.

Despite a strong effort by Advocates from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee members' states, S. 1955 passed in that Committee by a vote of 11-9 on Tuesday. Now this bill will go to the Senate floor for a vote. If there was ever a time for you to take action -- emailing your Senators, calling them, or visiting them -- this is it.

We strongly urge you to send an email and fax to your Senators at minimum (below). If you understand the seriousness of this situation and want to put up our best fight to preserve insurance coverage for people with diabetes, here's how you can help further:

Call your Senators: http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TellAFriend?msgId=53302.0&devId=19841&JServSessionIdr010=vf763o5ru1.app28b


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