PLEASE - Take Action Today!

Hi everyone - Wanted to post the following note I received regarding action we need to take this week! The legislative bills regarding insurance coverage for bariatric surgery are in committee. In order for them to go to the full assembly they have to be voted on and moved out of the committee. This will happen in the next week. We need everyone to contact the members of the Insurance committee and the Public Health Committee and tell them you support these bills and why. YOu can email, fax or call. PLEASE do make a grass roots effort to get this bill out of committee and to the floor. Let the legislators know that what the insurances are now doing is unfair and we are going to fight it! It takes all of us doing this, please don't ignore this email. When you write or call, be 'short and sweet'. Tell them why you support it and what it has meant to you, including any health benefits. On calls they most likely will just want to know if you support it and not much more. Faxes or emails can be more detailed, but keep it short again. It will more likely be read if so. Here are the bill numbers again: Raised Bill no. 579 has been referred to the Public Health committee. Raised bill. 552 has been referred to the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. Here is the committe info again. http://www.cga.ct.gov Then go to the "Committees A-H & I-Z" then seclet "Public Health" or "Insurance" and then "Membership". there are links to the members web sites and emails. Please do what you can to help out!!! Don't assume someone else will do this - that someone is YOU! Thanks!! Carla

Thanks for the reminder Carla. Dr. Aranow's support group had all of this very important information available to everyone as they entered the meeting room. I know I will be contacting legislators today during lunch. Hope there is a big response from everyone. Take care and thanks for the posting information. Angie

Hi Carla ... Sent short notes to House and Senate. Hope it helps. {{{{HUGS}}}} Sandy

I wrote my letter yesterday and will be emailing it to all of them today. I hope this works out in our favor. I know I never could have afforded the surgery without insurance, who could?? Thanks for the reminder!

All done send short email to them Thank you for remind us for this and want to support for pre op people for this. Hugs Kathy k

Hey girl, Will get my email out today, doing my letter and will send out as soon as done. Thanks for the reminder. Hugs KimC

I got these email addresses for both the Insurance and Public Health Committees. I figured that the more people that email them, the better. Just copy and paste the addresses. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) has developed an advocacy guide on this issue. It can be found at http://www.obesityaction.org/advocacy/connecticut.php and includes a sample letter as well as contact information for the legislators who will be voting on this issue. For those of you not familiar with the OAC, we are a patient-based non-profit organization dedicated to elevating and empowering those affected by obesity through education, advocacy and support. Our Board of Directors is composed of nine volunteers with six of them being weight-loss surgery patients. More information on the OAC and our wide variety of educational and advocacy activities can be found at www.obesityaction.org . I urge you to raise your voice and become an advocate on this important issue. Joe Nadglowski President and CEO Obesity Action Coalition

Thanks for the info Carla. I will be at the Capitol on Wednesday for Public Employee Lobby Day so I can get to a few of the people on the committees. Suggestion: It is my experience that the best way to impress your legislators is to show up in force and confront them face to face and request support. I don't want to sound cruel or hurt anyone's feelings, but a lot of those "people", (I use the word people very lightly) are snakes!!!!! They will talk to you out of both sides of their mouth and smile at you at the same time. The Insurance industry is a huge industry which throws around a lot of money and has very high priced lobbyists working for them so it's hard for a legislator to vote against them. Don't forget, the new campaign financing laws don't kick in until next year. We need as many people as we can get to go to the Capitol and meet your own Legislator and explain to him/her the benefits of WLS and what it has done for you. They have to hear and see the horror storys for themselves to be convinced. Don't get me wrong, phone calls and e-mails always help; however, a lot of times they are intercepted by staff or totally ignored by some Legislators. Trust me on this one, I have a little experience at the Legislature because of my union involvement. Hope this helps, Joe

Thanks everyone for your participation thus far! But there's still more work to be done. Last year we tried unsuccessfully to get insurance coverage for WLS restored in this state. This time around I hope we succeed. Currently two bills are in committee hearing for which public testimony will be heard. Senate Bill 579 will be discussed Monday March 13th at 1pm before the Public Health Committee Senate Bill 552 will be discussed Tuesday March 14th at 12pm before the Insurance and Real Estate Committee These meetings will occur at the Legislative office building right next door to the state capital. I urge all WLS patients and families to attend these meetings. Your presence in the gallery will be powerful signal to our representatives that this is an issue that must be taken seriously. I applaud all who have written to their representatives in response to this issue. Please make all your interactions with the legislators as personal as possible! The OAC has done a great job in explaining how to write and communicate with your reps and their link is wonderful: http://www.obesityaction.org/advocacy/connecticut.php Keep writing but if possible please come to these hearings!!! Thanks again, Jonathan Aranow, MD