Brewercare is killing us! DREAM of LIFE Walk!!!

Saturday's DREAM of LIFE Walk for the surviving patients on the AHCCCS transplant list was amazing - these are my photos with a brief news piece from ABC15.com at the bottom. Here are the video clips.

Along those same lines, here's the article from Russ Pearce's Me Party Senate Appropriations Committee this week, which voted 8-5 to eliminate the MEDICAID for Arizonans altogether, so our friends awaiting transplants will soon have much more company among the people the state has decided to allow to withhold life-saving medical care for.

Ironically, no matter how ill or disabled a person is in this state, we still end up paying the government a hell of a lot through the very sales taxes that are supposed to be spent on the welfare of the people....and I want my taxes to go to AHCCCS before anyone else needlessly dies. I'm sick of the legislature extorting me for their salaries while they kill my people by pissing away my money on suing the feds over immigration and setting up committees to pick and choose which federal laws Arizona wants to nullify because they give too many people rights and health care and other essential things.

No wonder people are talking about seceeding from the state. What ignorant, self-righteous dolts we have running this show. If I knew it was that easy to nullify laws, I would have written my own constitution and criminal code a long time ago and told the feds and state where to go myself.



















































'Dream of Life Walk' aimed to raise awareness about AHCCCS funding cuts

ABC15.com
Posted: 5:55 PM
March 5, 2011


* By: Mike Pelton

PHOENIX - A Valley man who needs a new liver, along with dozens of others, marched to the state capitol Saturday, in hopes of raising awareness about the importance of funding the state’s Medicaid program, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).

Francisco Felix has cancer and needs a liver transplant. He is one of the 98 people who lost coverage when Governor Jan Brewer approved cuts to AHCCCS, a move that aimed to help solve the state’s massive budget deficit.

“We are asking for the funds for the transplants,” said Felix, whose cousin, Lulu translated for him.

People from all across the Valley gathered at a Phoenix church this morning for a ‘Dream of Life Walk’. They marched to the capitol in hopes of raising awareness about the issue. Governor Brewer, however, isn’t in Arizona. She sent out a message on Twitter late Friday night that said she is in Alaska on vacation.

The cuts to AHCCCS were made last year as part of the new budget. It left 98 people who needed transplants without funding from the program. Two have died since the cuts were made.

“By subtracting this funding from them, these 96 remaining people will die,” said Dr. Richard Darling, who attended Saturday’s march. “It won't be that long either because some of them are very, very ill.”

State leaders have said the cuts were necessary because of the dire budget issues.

But for Felix, he and his family have resorted to selling food at local events to help raise money. They sell hot dogs, chips and drinks, in hope of getting enough money to pay for the transplant. They said they need about $500,000 and including donations, have raised about $100,000.

“I’m going to be fighting, I’m not going to give up,” Felix said.

Oprah: Fight for Life in AZ.

This item below comes via Julie from a friend of hers. Here's the "suggestions" link for Oprah, and Linda's letter as an example of how to try to get her here and turn up the heat, so to speak. The folks at Harpo Productions may not pay attention to just one of these, but I bet if a few along these lines reached them they'd start to notice (especially if they got some from children, with drawings and crayon).

------------------------

Dear Miss Oprah,

I am writing to you on behalf of the 96 people in Arizona (2 have already deceased) who were originally approved for organ transplant operations under our State’s Medicaid program called AHCCCS (Access). In August 2010 the Governor, Jan Brewer, informed them all that due to budget constraints the State would no longer offer coverage for these life saving medical procedures.

Since August, our Governor has been presented with several different scenarios and ideas on how to balance the budget without cutting the organ transplant funding. To date she has refused to compromise in any way and says she is making “hard choices in tough economic times”.

I can simply no longer sit around and do nothing! Denying Medicaid patient’s organ transplants is a death sentence. These people do not have time on their side to “ride it out” through our budget crisis. Organ transplants are their ONLY option for living.

I am not asking you for a handout or to fund any transplant procedures. All I am asking is that you devote some time, in one of your shows, to bring national/global attention to the plight of these people in Arizona. I do believe that with enough public attention being drawn to this issue the Governor will be forced to restore the funding out of the sheer protest by the masses. Most Americans do not even realize what is happening in Arizona. Death panels are a reality in this state!

I respectfully request that you please give serious consideration to my request. I will ensure that you have access to the FACTS of this serious matter in AZ. I will also be able to introduce you to the patients who have been denied coverage so that you can personally hear their individual stories. I also have several State representatives who would to happy to discuss this issue with you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Linda Gallie

Phoenix, Arizona

Dying to save Kavanagh $$$: AHCCCS Transplant Patients

Anyone out there from Fountain Hills who is not being accurately represented by John Kavanagh, please speak now. He will be wreaking havoc in our legislature this year, and you folks should rein him in before he hurts anyone else...

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No to transplant funds House, Senate panel chairmen will not give proposals a hearing

by Mary K. Reinhart - Feb. 3, 2011
The Arizona Republic

Arizonans who lost coverage for lifesaving organ transplants had political winds at their backs last fall, with national media attention and a sympathetic key Republican lawmaker.

But Rep. John Kavanagh's support has evaporated, and there now appears little chance legislators will restore funding to return nearly 100 people to waiting lists for heart, liver, bone-marrow and lung transplants.

"I've kind of lost hope," said Randy Shepherd, a Mesa father of three who needs a heart transplant. "I don't know how long we can bang our fists on the wall and continue to be ignored before we decide to be quiet and go away."


Last spring, lawmakers made sweeping cuts to the state's health-care program for the indigent to help bridge a budget shortfall of more than $3 billion, which amounted to nearly one-third of state revenues.

Kavanagh, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, said in November that he was concerned lawmakers had based their decision to deny coverage on flawed data provided by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program. He said he planned to hold a hearing to consider newer statistics showing better patient outcomes.

Now, he says that the mortality data called into question by leading transplant physicians here and across the country look solid and that additional information provided by the same doctors failed to persuade him to reconsider.

"Almost everybody died," Kavanagh said of certain transplant patients during a budget hearing Wednesday. "That's powerful stuff statistically."

While AHCCCS data from 2006 to 2007 showed that 13 of 14 patients who received bone-marrow transplants from unrelated donors died within the first year, doctors provided broader statistics that showed nine of 19 transplant patients were still alive, a 47 percent survival rate similar to the national average.

"Why are we relying on incomplete, old data? What other business would do that?" said Rep. Anna Tovar, D-Phoenix, a transplant survivor who received bone marrow from her brother in 2001. "If we can't take care of our most critically ill Arizonans, then we aren't doing our job."

Democrats have introduced four transplant-related bills, and Tovar is introducing four more today, including a measure to provide private matching dollars from the New Life Foundation for state transplant funding.

Four have been assigned to appropriations panels and the other four are expected to be.

Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Andy Biggs both said Wednesday that they will not hear them, which effectively kills the bills.

"We're not doing the budget in pieces," said Biggs, R-Gilbert, adding that Gov. Jan Brewer's staff told him she won't consider legislation to restore transplant coverage.

Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said the governor's position hasn't changed since the transplant cuts took effect Oct. 1.

"We don't have the money," he said. "And who's going to lose coverage to pay for it?"

Arizona and Brewer received national attention after Goodyear father Mark Price, a leukemia patient, came forward with his story. Price was denied coverage for a bone-marrow transplant and put a human face on Arizona's deep budget cuts. An anonymous donor came forward to pay for his transplant, but Price died Nov. 28.

The AHCCCS cuts, which included annual physicals, podiatry and emergency dental care, saved $5.3 million this fiscal year, but the state loses about $20 million in matching federal funds. The services are considered optional under Medicaid rules.

Brewer's budget for the coming fiscal year proposes eliminating 280,000 people from AHCCCS to help balance a $1.15 billion budget deficit. Brewer has asked federal health officials for permission to waive a requirement to maintain Medicaid eligibility.

Meanwhile, Biggs has introduced a bill to repeal AHCCCS, which would mean the loss of about $7.5 billion in federal funds.

Under Senate Bill 1519, the state's current $2.5 billion Medicaid contribution would be divided among services for people who need long-term care, those with serious mental illness and the developmentally disabled.

AHCCCS Transplants: Dream a little dream for me...

New Coalition Seeks to Restore Arizona Medicaid Funding

98 Arizonans were promised then denied coverage for life saving organ transplants. New Coalition forms to pressure legislature and Governor to restore funding.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan 13, 2011

For more information contact:
Bob Aronson
904-434-6512
Jacksonville, Florida
bob@baronson.org
http://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com

New Coalition Seeks to Restore Arizona Medicaid Transplant Funding

A powerful new organization has been formed to help restore Medicaid coverage for Arizona organ transplant patients and to prevent similar cuts in other states. The mission of “The Dream of Life Intervention Coalition” (DLIC) is to help patients with life-threatening health conditions get or keep Medicaid and/or Medicare insurance coverage.

The DLIC will emphasize four points in its campaign:

1. Denying Medicaid patients organ transplants is a death sentence. Transplants are their only option for living. (Two have already died in Arizona and 30 more could die this year. Many children will be left with one parent, others could become orphans).

2. If we don’t reverse the Arizona situation it could be seen by other states as permission to do the same thing and these death panels will begin to spread across the nation (If that happens, thousands if not millions could be sentenced to death and despair by budget slashing, heartless politicians. What’s next, banning chemo or radiation therapy for cancer patients? Is that what America is about?)

3. DLIC strongly believes that sending people to their death is no way to solve budget problems (doing so flies in the face of the constitutional guarantee that our government exists to protect its citizens and provide for their general welfare. The constitution does not say that killing citizens is permissible if it will save money.)

4. We do not want to allow these issues to go unaddressed and therefore encourage medical tourism or influence migration to other states or countries that have more accessible health benefits (that would shift the burden to regions that are unprepared to absorb the impact while maintaining the human and moral commitment to be socially responsible for our citizens).

Circumstances

On October 1, 2010 the state of Arizona told 98 of its legal citizens that Medicaid would not cover life saving organ transplants despite having promised them earlier that the procedures would be covered. Since that order, two of the 98 have died and another is said to be selling her belongings in order to move somewhere where Medicaid will cover her liver transplant. Governor Jan Brewer says the cuts were made to help reduce the state’s budget deficit. She remains opposed to restoring the funding.

Last Monday January 10, 2011, leaders of several advocacy groups joined in a conference call with Arizona senate Minority leader David Schapira and State Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D) to discuss the issue. Senator Sinema has introduced a bill she says would provide more than enough money to restore transplant funding and provide millions more to help reduce the state’s budget deficit.

The conference call revolved around ways in which DLIC could assist with the effort to restore funding. While the Governor’s office says the transplants would cost nearly $5 million, Jennifer Carusetta, legislative liaison for Arizona Medicaid, says cutting transplants would only save $800,000 in the current fiscal year, and only $1.4 million for a full year.
Participating in the call was William Remak Chair of the National Association of Hepatitis Task Forces (NAHTF), two time liver transplant recipient and cancer survivor; Julie Acklin, Arizona Director of the NAHTF; Bob Aronson, heart transplant recipient and founder of Save the Arizona 98 and Facebook’s Organ Transplant Initiative; Patricia Lupole, Director of the Hepatitis C Veterans group (thehvcvets.com) and Flor Felix representing her husband and some other Arizona citizens who have been denied Medicaid covered organ transplants. We will soon announce other members.

Senators Schapira and Sinema said that while Democratic support for the bill was strong, some in the Republican majority were willing to review it while others were less enthusiastic. As a result the new group, Dream of Life Intervention Coalition, decided unanimously to embark on a nationwide campaign to bring greater visibility to the Arizona situation and to rally public opinion to put increased pressure on Arizona officials to restore Medicaid covered organ transplant funding. Additionally DLIC will work to help ensure that Medicaid cuts throughout the country at state levels do not result in restricting life saving interventions for people in dire circumstances.

DLIC is working on a more detailed communication plan and will soon provide the public with steps they can take to begin the campaign to stop the dying by restoring funding.

***William (Bill) Remak, BSMT, BSPH, SGNA, AHCJ., has initiated coordinating this collaborative effort in response to the pleas and desperation demonstrated by the families of the chronically ill from the neighboring state of California where he sits on the steering committee of the California Chronic Care Coalition. Bill said.” No state public servant or elected official should sacrifice the lives of their constituents as a means to flex their political party muscle or power by using policy to destroy the fabric of our value as human beings. It defeats the core of our ability to thrive as a nation and can only lead to the devastation of mankind.”

-30-

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” -Helen Keller (1880 – 1968)

# # #

Dream of Life Intervention Coalition is an non profit advocacy group that seeks to help patients with life-threatening health conditions get or keep Medicaid and/or Medicare insurance coverage. Our first project is to restore Arizona Medicaid funding for the 98 people who were denied organ transplatns. Bob Aronson is the founder of Save the Arizona 98 www.savethearizona98.com and Facebook's Organ Transplant Initiative.

Have a Heart 4 AHCCCS Transplant Patients

FRANCISCO FELIX: Father of 4 beautiful girls.
Hepatitis C AHCCCS Patient on Liver Transplant Waiting List.
Needs $500,000.
Car Wash today and Tomorrow.

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My friend Julie Acklin and I spent a few hours today with the friends and family of Francisco Felix, a Hepatitis C patient in need of a liver transplant. He actually had a match donated to him by a family friend who passed away in November, but he couldn't afford the $200,000 tab - and the state refused to step up to pay it.

Francisco is one of 98 patients in our state (now 97, I believe, with Mark Price's death) who lost funding this fall for their desperately needed organ and tissue transplants through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS - Arizona's name for Medicaid, which is less and less accessible under our compassionate conservatives). Several of the links I've embedded in this post will help you find out who voted for and against the cuts, but I can tell you it was pretty much a party-line thing. A week or so ago I protested at the Capitol and blogged on this issue, too (see "Bury My Heart in An AHCCCS Patient").

13-year old Carlos Olivas, Jr. (above, with Jessica Felix) also hit the Capitol to protest and has been everywhere fund-raising recently. I met him at the car wash today, and he's an amazing kid. Read the CNBC story about him if you need some inspiration to stop talking and take action for these folks. He's pretty humble about it, but as I understand it, he's single-handedly raised nearly $2,000 for the cause so far. Really, all those kids out there today were heroes; just a few (including Francisco's daughters) are pictured here.

The AZ Senate Democrats have filed a bill to restore the transplant funding, but they aren't the ones in control of the state legislature - the Republicans are, so lobby the Governor and your lawmaker for it hard, reminding them that it's our money they're depriving Arizona's families of, not theirs.

Anyway, the occasion today was a yard sale and car wash being held to raise money for Francisco, who will now need about $500,000 for his transplant and related expenses. A lot of people turned out, but I don't think we raised enough. In fact, I'm sure we didn't.


There will be another fundraiser for him tomorrow as well, so please bring your dirty cars, a little cash, and some rich friends or Republican legislators to support the cause.

It's being held from 7am-3pm at the entrance to Acclaim Charter School at 7624 W. Indian School Rd., on the West side of Phoenix between 76th and 77th Ave.

The easiest way I found to get there from my place on Central and Roosevelt was to hop on the I-10 going West, take the 75th Ave exit North, and head up to Indian School Road, where you'll make a left, going West again. About 1/4 mile down the road you'll see a ton of eager children on your right (probably waving hot pink signs) imploring you to wash your car. Turn in it even if it's already clean.


While you're waiting for your vehicle shop at NAPA Auto Parts (the guy there threw his support behind this whole thing), hit the yard sale for things you might (or might not) need, buy a Francisco Felix t-shirt, or mosey on to the back of the lot to pick up a couple of tacos. If you're really brave, turn your clean car over to me and the kids to have your back window painted. The photos throughout this post should give you an idea of what I mean.




If you can't make it tomorrow, don 't worry - you can still give to Francisco's fund. In fact, that's all I really want for Christmas, so if you really love me, go to the NTAF and donate today.

Thank you in advance for your support.


Feliz Navidad, mis amigos y amigas.



(hope I got that right... Love to all.)

Bury my Heart in an AHCCCS Patient

I felt strong enough for the first time in weeks to go out chalking today, so headed up to the Capitol Complex and Wes Bolin Park, one of my favorite spots to practice my free speech (That's 17th Ave I'm on, between W. Washington and W. Jefferson, right across the street from the legislators and governor's office buildings. The media and visitors and legislative aides all cross that sidewalk from the parking lot to get over there).





















Kids were all over the place singing Christmas Carols, and naturally curious about what I was writing about. So I told them about the people who are so sick that their insurance plans wouldn't cover their most critical medical treatment, and how they needed the state to pay their medical bills through the AHCCCS program - which the Arizona republican governor and legislature, the ultimate compassionate conservatives, decided isn't going to pay for their organ transplants anymore.



Then I told the kids that if Governor Brewer doesn't restore that funding, those people will die. I even named some of them: Coach Tiffany Tate, a cystic fibrosis patient who needs a double lung transplant, Randy Shepherd, a father of 3 who needs a heart transplant, and Francisco Felix, a survivor - so far - of the deadly damage of Hepatitis C. His dying family friend even tried to give him her liver, but AHCCCS still wouldn't pay for the transplant.


I didn't mention "Death Panels" to the kids, though - I thought what I told them was heavy enough already.


In the meantime, someone called the Capitol Police on me ( they always do), assuming that what I was doing was a crime. They all know my name now, but wanted to see some ID anyway - and tried to convince me that my conduct was, in fact, against the law - they just weren't going to arrest me because I was technically in the territory of the Phoenix Police.

One of the guys was actually pretty nice about trying to intimidate me in to leaving (not this one above - he was really hostile to me when I was caught alone by him on Halloween night). I was actually pretty much done for the day, but stayed long enough to argue with the cops that not only was my mode of expression not criminal (I keep it on the ground and on city sidewalks), but that the vigor with which the state solicits the poor to harvest our organs upon our death, while justifying why we or our loved ones aren't deserving of receiving transplants in life is truly criminal.


They didn't put up much of a fight on that one.

Here's the finished product - not the greatest picture, but you get the gist...

I signed it "future organ donor against Brewercare."

Happy World Human Rights Day

Future Organ Donor Against Brewercare

Today is International Human Rights Day. This would be the perfect time for Brewer to call a special session of the legislature to pass a bill that would restore the cuts to AHCCCS funding for transplant patients - including liver transplants for people with Hepatitis C.

I find it deeply disturbing that as an Arizona citizen living in poverty, my own organs would be harvested by this state only to be doled out to the privileged few. Clearly the poor are still good enough to be preyed upon, but not worthy enough to be saved...

Is that really what Republicans stand for here?

On that note, I'm dropping this $7 check off at the Capitol Executive Building for the Governor today. Read the article below for an explanation...

--------------from myfoxphoenix.com----------

Patients Desperately Needing Transplants Share Stories

They call on governor to restore AHCCCS cuts

Published : Tuesday, 07 Dec 2010, 5:16 PM MST

PHOENIX - Doctors, transplant patients and Democratic lawmakers blasted what they refer to as "BrewerCare" Tuesday, calling for Governor Jan Brewer to restore the money slashed from the state's Medicaid program AHCCCS.

A news conference was held at the state Capital. Among those in attendance were four people waiting for transplants for themselves or their loved ones, and called for Brewer to do something now before its too late.

Four Arizona families in need of transplants issued an emotional plea. A woman with cystic fibrosis, a father of 3 who needs a heart transplant, a man with hepatitis C and cancer, and another man who needs a heart transplant, had their stories told.

Surrounded by several Democratic lawmakers, they called for Jan Brewer to restore the money slashed from the state's transplant program.

"If the state budget were the average American salary, the cost to restore the funding would be $7. $7 to save people's lives," says Democratic Rep. David Schapira.

House Republican Jon Kavanagh says the decision to cut certain transplants was based on incomplete data that showed low success rates. He says he's still waiting for a report.

"I have the data summary here from the group of doctors including Mayo, saying significant survival rates, but they never gave us the number, they never gave us the data, we need facts," he says.

Democrats want the governor to call a special session, or use federal stimulus funds to cover the cost. However, a spokesperson for the governor's office tells me that funds were used already for job creation, education and public safety. He says even if the funds were available, they wouldn't cover the costs necessary.