URGENT Please Read and Help Save Lives

The number of people who die from under-treated or untreated Lyme Disease is staggering. How can that be? Standard Autopsy's do not pick up spirochetal disease. Of the 100 blood tests for Lyme that the FDA approved only about 3 actually pick up most seropositive Lyme but Lyme goes seronegative in 6 weeks. People die of diabetes, heart problems, cancer, immune disfunction, stroke, or misdiagnosed MS, ALS, Alzheimer's, etc but the underlying cause is Lyme Disease. Lyme is a clinical diagnosis but it is well understood. This is a case of the drug companies and insurance companies running our medical system and if they can do it to Lyme patients they can do it to anyone. Please read and call to urge a vote. A similar bill that passed the NY Legislature UNANIMOUSLY last year was vetoed by Gov Pataki at the last minute at the urging of the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies. The current bill was only altered to make it doubly sure to protect doctors AND patients and cater to the Governor's "concerns".

NY led the country with clinical researcher physicians that would not toe the political line when it came to Lyme. They were concerned about their patients not their patents, their paid testimony, or their marketability to drug companies. That is why NY doctors were systematically and anonymously wrongly accused and prosecuted under existing NY Medical Board (OPMC) guidelines that allowed no due process for the physician. Because these researchers were under attack their research was then rejected by insurance companies in almost all states. Bottom line they didn't have to pay. An insurance actuary told our Support Group in 1993 that the insurance company knew that a chronic or late Lyme patient would cost more than an HIV-AIDS patient at that time and the insurance companies were going to do anything and everything they could to get out of paying for treatment.

----- Original Message -----
From: "ellen lubarsky" <ellenluba@yahoo.com>
To: <ChronicLyme@yahoogroups.com>; <mmi@mentalhealthandillness.com>; <NYLyme2@yahoogroups.com>; <LDANET@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 4:39 PM
Subject: WE DON"T COUNT - OPMC UPDATE 6/7/05


> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE. THIS IS FOR EVERYONE, NO MATTER
> WHAT STATE YOU LIVE IN.
>
> Hi folks,
> I'm mad and really don't want to take this garbage
> anymore.
>
> Like most of you, I've had this illness for many, many
> years, most of which have been spent in bed.
>
> I know you don't really get to plan your life, but
> this is a little too far from what I'd planned.
>
> I'm sure the reality of your life since Lyme is far
> from what you expected.
>
> We have had to fight for every little bit of progress
> we have made. (Since 1989)
>
> We still cannot rest assured that the doctor who is
> saving our lives today will be allowed to help us
> tomorrow.
>
> THE ULTIMATE (OR MAYBE ONE OF THE ULTIMATE) SLAP IN
> THE FACE:
>
> Now the ultimate slap in the face comes from some
> patronizing government attorneys who have decided that
> the bill we have been lobbying for is not REALLY
> what's best for us.
>
> Apparently, we were not only too stupid to know we
> REALLY had fibromyalgia; we are also too stupid to
> know that we will not REALLY be helped if our doctors
> can protect their medical licenses.
>
> More than 50 very, very sick Lyme patients shlepped up
> to Albany a few weeks ago, and many more patients
> wrote and called in the last few days.
>
> Yet, the attorneys for the Assembly Codes Committee
> still don't get that fairness for doctors can mean
> fairness for patients.
>
> In their infinite wisdom, these attorneys have either
> decided that patients, in general, don't know what
> they're talking about or that Lyme disease patients,
> in particular, don't know what they're talking about.
>
> They have advised Assemblyman Lentol and the rest of
> the committee that the OPMC Due Process bill
> S5057/A7757 helps doctors but not patients.
>
> I mean, fifty people did not decide to spend most of
> the month of May half dead in bed because they just
> wanted to take a scenic tour of Albany.
>
> If that didn't get the committee to listen, then we
> have to up the numbers of people writing and calling
> to the thousands.
>
> ACTION ALERT:
> Please get everyone you know to call and email
> Assemblyman Lentol and ask, urge, beg him to bring
> S5057/A7757 up for a vote in the Assembly Codes
> Committee ASAP. Let him know that if doctors are not
> given basic rights to protect their licenses , then
> patients suffer.
>
> In one way or another we want them to finally hear
> that this is a patients' rights bills, that we need
> our doctors.
>
> EMAIL:
> Lentolj@assembly.state.ny.us
> Be sure to sign with full name and address.
>
> Albany Office Phone:
> 1-518-455-4477
>
> District Office Phone:
> 718-383-7474
>
> Ellen

would be helpful to your cause. From what you post I'm not convinced that you have one.

----- Original Message -----
From: <b10g7@comcast.net>
To: "~lymeinformation" <lyme-information@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 7:50 PM
Subject: Fw: FAITH RESTORED!!! - OPMC UPDATE 6/9/05


> FAITH RESTORED!!! - OPMC UPDATE 6/9/05
>
>
> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE. THIS POST IS FOR EVERYONE IN EVERY
> STATE
>
> Hi folks,
> Thank you, thank you, thank you to every one of you
> who wrote and emailed Assemblyman Lentol.
>
> We have gotten our message across!
>
> The Assembly, (specifically Assemblymen Lentol,
> Gottfried and Silver) is now making plans for the OPMC
> Due Process bill, S5057/A7757 to make its way through
> committee and come to the floor of the Assembly for a
> vote next week.
>
> We do expect that the vote will then be overwhelmingly
> in our favor. HOORAY!!
>
> So now please do the following:
> 1) Pat yourself on the back.
> 2) Breathe deeply
> 3) Come out fighting again to get the bill passed by
> the Senate by following the action alert below
>
> ACTION ALERT:
> 1) Please call and email Senator Kemp Hannon and ask
> him to make sure the OPMC Due Process bill S5057
> passes the Senate.
>
> His district office:
>
> 516 739 1700
>
> His Albany Office:
> 518 455 2200
>
> E Mail:
> Hannon@senate.state.ny.us
>
> 2) Contact Senator Joseph Bruno and ask him to pass
> make sure the OPMC Due Process bill, S5057, passes the
> Senate ASAP.
>
> Icannot find Senator Bruno's phone numbers right now,
> so please email him immediately.
>
> bruno@senate.state.ny.us
>
> Please get all your friends and family to do the same.
> We are running out of time.
>
> EXPLANATION OF NEED TO CONTACT BOTH SENATORS (for
> those who are curious):
> Since the legislature is getting ready to close down
> by June 23rd, the only committee still meeting in the
> Senate is the Senate Rules committee.
>
> So what happens now is that Senator Bruno, the head of
> the Rules committee has to ask Senator Hannon, the
> head of the Health committee to send the bill over to
> Rules.
>
> In this elaborate dance that has to take place,
> Senator Hannon is still,unfortunately, playing the
> reluctant virgin about sending our bill to Senator
> Bruno.
>
> Maybe he will and maybe he won't. The man is coy and,
> apparently, needs to be convinced. So let's do it.
>
> ANd, of course, Senator Bruno needs to hear that there
> is a public outcry to get the bill passed by his Rules
> committee.
> for telephones and email.
>
> Okay. That's it. Thanks again. Please pull out all
> the stops in this last week or so before the
> legislature goes home.
> Ellen