Category — Raynaud's
Health Reform And Gender Discrimination
Yesterday, I watched the bipartisan meeting on health reform. The summit was fascinating to me for many reasons but there was a highlight, for me, in the form of remarks made by Rep. Louise Slaughter. She really stood up for women’s health!
Rep. Louise Slaughter
She boldly spoke up for women at the 2/25/2010 health summit
In my mind, her comments can be appreciated by all women and especially any any female patient who has lived with the effects of gender discrimination in relation to medical research (i.e. lack of research on women or lack of investigating illnesses that affect just women) or cost of healthcare that is tied to gender. I won’t even get into a discussion of how common it is for women’s symptoms to be dismissed when similar symptoms would be taken more seriously for males (i.e. heart disease). The point is that Rep. Louise Slaughter stood up for all women and I was just beyond thrilled that she took the opportunity presented by the summit to address these issues.
My thanks to Diana of the Somebody Heal Me blog for posting this video. When I clicked on the link she posted (to the video below), it took me to the Odd Time Signatures site.
Yesterday, I was so thrilled to hear what Rep. Louise Slaughter said that I resolved myself to scour the Internet today to find a video clip of her at yesterday’s summit. Again, Rep. Slaughter wasn’t just speaking up about health reform.
She was speaking up for female patients everywhere and she was shining light on the fact that medical research studies were done almost exclusively on white males up until a startlingly short time ago, relatively speaking. I believe that any patient with an illness that affects women can appreciate the way Rep. Louise Slaughter spoke up for ALL female patients.
As a patient with numerous illnesses that either affect women alone or that affect more women than men, I was absolutely ecstatic to hear Rep. Louise Slaughter articulate what too few people are aware of… and to hear her do so in such a public forum!
There IS gender discrimination not only in the area of medical research but in the very cost of health insurance itself for women vs. men. Before I had even had a chance to locate a video of Rep. Louise Slaughter at yesterday’s summit, I came across a link from Diana that led me to Odd Time Signatures site.
(Video run time 12 minutes and 59 seconds):
Did you miss the summit? I will warn you up front. It’s long. However, you can scroll through the link below and watch parts of it if you choose to. (This video was just a snippet from the summit).
The link below has the summit, in its entirety, broken down into five video parts. You can watch some or all of it at the link below:
Bipartisan Health Care Meeting
This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum
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February 26, 2010 2 Comments
Reid Says Reconciliation Likely On Health Reform
(Photo credit – Getty)
I have written previously regarding healthcare and wanted to take a moment here to post an update on the current situation, for those of you who may not be aware of the status of things at this time.
Rather than re-invent the wheel, I will cite the following post from:
S E N A T U S: Daily Coverage of the United States Senate
See “About Senatus” (taken directly from that site):
Providing daily, non-partisan coverage of the U.S. Senate and the elections which determine its members. This is a private-citizen effort and is in no way affiliated with the federal government.
(Photo credit – Associated Press)
See the following post on the Senatus blog:
Reid Says Reconciliation Likely On Health Reform
According to various news reports, 20 senators have signed so far, calling on Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through “reconciliation,” which only needs a simple majority in the Senate. If your Senator is listed as “unknown” on the list below, please consider taking a moment to email or call him/her requesting he/she join the 20 Senators who have already called on Majority Leader Harry Reid, as per above:
Name – ST – Status:
This isn’t about politics. At least it’s not for me. For some people, the issue of healthcare is a political one. For me, this is about people, about the basic human right of people to be able to obtain access to basic healthcare to meet their needs. Without reform to the very broken system currently in place in the U.S., the health insurance companies will continue to price gouge customers while providing less and less coverage and issuing more and more rejections for various services, tests, procedures, and surgeries.
Having had my insurance reject valid claims and having filed an appeal, having had my appeal rejected and then having filed another appeal and having won… I know that insurance companies are excellent at obstructing patients’ paths to needed care, superb at hindering patients’ ability to access care that IS covered as per their contract, and masters at rejecting claims that are completely valid (in the presumed hope that patients will give up and not file appeals, thus resulting in the patient going without the needed care or paying out of pocket for it while the insurance pays nothing for it).
These practices must not be allowed to continue. A public option will finally force competition so that health insurance companies cannot continue to bully patients the way they have become accustomed to. People who are fortunate enough to have never been seriously ill may not realize just how little the average health insurance company actually covers these days.
ANYONE can get sick or injured and can quickly discover just how dysfunctional the current system is. No one is immune to the risk of suddenly discovering what so many people already know… that the health insurance system in the U.S. is profoundly flawed, that those lucky enough to have the flawed coverage offered by a typical health insurance company may at some point discover just how little their health insurance premiums are worth, that far too many people cannot afford access to health insurance at all, and that action must be taken to reform this system as soon as possible.
The longer this mess drags on, the more difficult it becomes to fix and the more people suffer. After decades of talk about reforming the broken system, steps in the right direction are now visible. Every voice matters. I have been busy writing letters to Senators (not just asking for them to support the letter to House Majority Leader Harry Reid but thanking my Senators once both had signed on, to let them know I appreciate them standing up for people like me).
If you are like me, you’re chronically ill and you are all-too-familiar with how very expensive it can be (even WITH insurance) to obtain needed healthcare.
I am not naive enough to think that everyone reading this agrees with my perspective and I’m sure that some people reading this don’t. I am writing this post because I am passionate about healthcare access for all, I am sick to death of learning about example after example of health insurance companies making record, windfall profits while patients suffer without care or with insufficient care to meet their needs, and I am bone tired of the decades of TALK about fixing this problem without ACTION to make it happen.
While I am fully aware that not everyone is in agreement on how to best go about addressing the numerous problems with the healthcare system as it currently exists, the stakes are too high for me not to post this plea for people to contact the Senators marked “unknown” above and request that they become supporters of calling on Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the public health insurance option through “reconciliation”.
Healthcare reform has been discussed for decades. I believe there will NEVER be a time when everyone agrees on how to proceed. This matter is far too complex and is attached to far too many special interest groups for there EVER to be a time when everyone will agree.
As a chronically ill patient who almost lost my house not once… not twice… but three times due to out of pocket medical bills WITH insurance, I have witnessed firsthand how broken the current system is. Since I write a blog about chronic illness topics, I cannot stand by and watch the events unfolding without sharing my perspective.
I don’t ask everyone to agree with me but I do ask everyone reading this to understand that I know from personal experience just how severely the currently system is stacked against so many. I have friends who have no health insurance at all. This saddens me.
This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for supporting this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have done so in these last couple of months; I greatly appreciate your support!!
Thank you for your blog comments!
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>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<
February 21, 2010 4 Comments
Stressful Week
It is too late. I already am. Late. It seems like I’m late on everything both online and in real life. It is maddening. I feel like I can’t ever catch up. It’s always just a matter of how far behind I am on things.
I won’t bore you with the long list of things I’m late on in my real life. My to-do list has reached nauseating proportions. I’m going to need to take some drastic measures to make significant progress.
As far as online matters are concerned, I’m late moderating comments. I’m late answering Facebook messages. I’m late blogging. (This is my first post since Monday. I don’t usually have gaps like that between posts). I’m really late on responding to email.
So, if you are one of the people wondering why I am so slow responding to a comment or an email… please accept this as my apology. It has been a stressful week.
Why? Why am I so stressed out?
I don’t have any big, dramatic news that explains why I am so stressed out. So, I found myself actually asking, “why am I so stressed out? I concluded that a large number of little things or moderately problematic issues have just culminated into one big pile of stress and that stress is on top of “medical stress” (meaning stress associated with all things medical, a type of stress I’ve had plenty of this week too).
So, I’ve had some significant “medical stress” this week but I can honestly say that this – what prompted this post – is other stress on top of that. Does that make sense? Anyone who is chronically ill knows that medical issues certainly cause plenty of stress. Obviously, the illnesses are probably the biggest stressor I have in general.
(Do me a favor and pretend that is a pile of stress. Oddly, I was unable to find a picture of one. I named this “stresswood”)
So, I think what I’m trying to say is that I am stressed by lots of non-medical issues that have popped up throughout the week on top of “medical stress”.
There are many reasons this week has been a stressful one. I won’t belabor the point with an exhaustive list of the many things that have stressed me out this week.
However, since this is a blog about chronic conditions, I will name the conditions that have been flaring up in some way this past week: fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, irritable bowel syndrome, endometriosis, and Raynaud’s. I am too tired to hyperlink all of those conditions. So, if you are interested in reading about any of them, check my “categories” or “search this blog” options in the right sidebar… as most of the conditions I have mentioned have been written about on this blog before.
Needless to say, many of the above conditions trigger others listed above. So I’ve been dealing with the chain reaction syndrome I am very used to by now. So, I just wanted to surface for air long enough to let you know that I am drowning in tasks to do, I am going as fast as I can to catch up, and it may be awhile before that happens.
I have had several wonderful friends remind me in the last few days to practice what I preach and remember to make self-care a priority. So, I am going to listen to my wise, thoughtful friends (too many to list, I’m afraid, but you know who you are!) and try to remember the basics such as relaxing, breathing, and taking breaks. I also want to thank the friends who have given me special support this week. Again, there are too many to list but you know who you are.
Have a wonderful weekend. Peace out.
This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for supporting this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have done so in these last couple of months; I greatly appreciate your support!!
Thank you for your blog comments!
New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.
>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<
January 22, 2010 10 Comments
Winterize Your Body (VIDEO)
Well, I finally made another video. Hopefully nobody is passing out. I know it has been awhile since I made one! Some of you probably thought my video-making days were over.
HINT: Please scroll down just far enough to view the video. If you scroll too far down the post before watching the video, you will miss out on properly seeing my surprise.
If you’d like to see what Hubby got me for my birthday (that’s the surprise), click play:
My Raynaud’s and fibromyalgia can make winter weather an interesting adventure! Gone are the days of me wearing shorts on snowy days. No, my body cannot handle that anymore!
Here is a still shot of my birthday present. (By the way, if you are this far into the post and you didn’t already watch the video, you are officially cheating).
I have a feeling any blogger out there will appreciate this gift. I first saw this shirt on Lee’s blog Perpetual Burn. (Lee designed the layout of the site of Alicia – aka Yaya: Yaya Stuff ). I contacted Lee to find out where she got it and then I planted a seed in Hubby’s head. (He had been asking me for ideas for a birthday gift). Voilà! Now I’ve got a blogging shirt.
Please check out my YouTube channel. Just click on the red heart for YouTube in the top right sidebar to access my channel.
Ratings and comments on videos are welcome. My YouTube channel is defaulting to the wrong view and I haven’t figured out how to fix it. When you pull up my channel, the top right corner has two options, “switch to grid view” and “switch to player view”. To view the channel on what it used to default to and make it easier to see things, simply click on “switch to player view”.
I have yet to figure out why this is happening and have just been flipping it manually myself. If anyone has any tips on how to save the default channel setting to “player view”, please let me know. My channel has been acting up ever since YouTube updated the appearance of all the channels. Thank you.
By the way, please don’t feel shy about Stumbling any posts you like here either. Just click “Stumble It!” at the bottom of any post you’d like to recommend to others. There is even an option to write a review of a blog if you wish to take it a step further. I appreciate your support. Thank you!
This post was written by Jeanne at http://chronichealing.com. Copyright © Jeanne — chronichealing.com. All rights reserved.
“Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” ~~ Robert Fulghum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for supporting this blog by shopping Amazon via my ads & spreading the word to others! So many of you have done so in these last couple of months; I greatly appreciate your support!!
Thank you for your blog comments!
New to blog commenting? Just click “comments” below the post. If you grab a Gravatar, your picture will show with your comment.
>> Stumbling & tweeting my blog posts is greatly appreciated! <<
December 29, 2009 15 Comments
Jannie Funster
Amanda
Amy Kiel
Diane
Juliemarshall
Aviva
Endochick
Flocked
Jenny H.
jingle
