Stop the Opiate Tax aka The Lifeboat Act
Public Comments (806)
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Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Mauldin, SC signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Nevada, MO signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Boise, ID signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from University Place, WA writes:
I'm a chronic pain patient from a debilitating, more painful than you could imagine, rare disease; Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. My shoulders and pelvis dislocate multiple times a day. I can't work, and I'm only 29. I will be on pain meds my whole life. You're punishing those who have no choice but to be in agony. It's heartless and disgusting to prey on those who can't fight for themselves.Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Rochester, NY writes:
Many patients use Opiod medications responsibly. Surely more people die from tobacco and alcohol, but these are readily available. I think you should concentrate on a different demographic rather than those who responsibly use opioids. If you've never had pain after surgery or chronic pain, you would never even be able to guess how hard our lives are.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Mount Pleasant, MI writes:
Why do politicians and government agencies think people, especially chronically ill people, have the money to pay for another tax. The cost of medications is ridiculous now without adding more on top of it.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Baytown, TX signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Wahiawa, HI writes:
Really? CPPs are already stretched to beyond a living wage. Most are either senior citizens on social security or disabled on Disability. Personally, my husband suffers from 24/7 pain even with his meds lowering it from a constant 9 to a 6-7. He is unable to work and since Disability will not recognize chronic pain as a disability, we have to live off my salary. I make $2,150/mo. After taxes and my insurance premium, I bring home $1,160/mo. That has to cover all monthly expenses, including monthly doctor copay and prescription copays. As older people with medical conditions, we can't even afford to eat as medically directed and live off the basics: lots of ramen, Mac n cheese, chicken, etc. Now you want to make life even harder? You are forcing people who are already struggling and suffering to make athe only choice left to them: suicide.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Port Barre, LA writes:
No tax to pay for addiction treatment program but I would be more then happy to pay a tax if money used to find better treatments for chronic pain. If more efficient and effective ways existed to treat chronic pain, addiction numbers caused from opioid medications would drop drastically. The government needs to quit thinking of idiotic ways to pay for a problem that will continue to get worse, like opiate and heroin addiction and start researching ways to better treat a problem like chronic pain and fatigue without the use of opiates. The way that these government agencies like the CDC and FDA are thinking and acting, they are pushing real pain sufferers to the streets for pain relief. The biggest problem is that the DEA has assured that these people who simply want pain relief can always find heroin and Fentanyl on the streets. Just maybe if the DEA was disbanded and the duties that they have failed at so miserably turned over to local law enforcement, the money that would be saved could be spent on the treatment of addiction and research for chronic pain.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Garland, TX signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Rockford, IL signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Gatesville, TX signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Bloomington, IL signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Los Angeles, CA writes:
Patients already have to pay more for their housing (hard to share w/ non-disabled), hospital parking, extra costs due to disabilities, healthy food, and thousands each year out of pocket for doctors and prescriptions. They also suffer financially because chronic pain affects their work life. This tax is an unfair added burden.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Tempe, AZ writes:
My letter to Senator McCain regarding the manufactured and false opioid epidemic: Dear Senator McCain, Two weeks ago I wrote and sent you a packet of materials with a petition for bringing the medical condition Adhesive Arachnoiditis into the light. Along with the printed petition I also included comments from the signers, to give you an idea of what our daily lives are like. I sent a packet to both your Phoenix and DC addresses. I have not heard back from you yet. I am hoping that I got the information to you in time for the congressional voting that will greatly disadvantage chronic pain patients if passed. I beg you to read the following and keep the plight of the patients who suffer from chronic, intractable pain. I wrote the following in response to a CDC blog regarding the current heroin epidemic. So, aren?t you wondering WHY there is an increase in opioid deaths and heroin overdoses? Because of the efforts of the CDC, DEA, PROP, and other organizations who seek to lump chronic pain patients in with those individuals who choose to abuse illicit drugs. Because of this, you have manufactured an opioid epidemic based on skewed statistics and flawed studies. You have not consulted with actual pain patients! Legitimate, compliant patients whose pain was properly managed are now being thrown under the bus with the addicts, so many of them are turning to street drugs ? some, as we have learned, laced with deadly amounts of fentanyl. Denying pain patients their medication isn?t going to do anything to reduce addiction. Addicts will always find what they want. Pain patients should be treated with equal dignity as patients with any other illness. Diabetics aren?t shamed because they need insulin; asthma sufferers aren?t sneered at by pharmacists for needing inhalers. Why are chronic, intractable pain patients being tortured as second-class citizens? I have an incurable, degenerative spinal injury. Without opioid medication, I would live a life a torture. I have been bed-ridden in the past. No pain patient wants their condition; we didn?t sign on for this. In fact, as in my case, many of us have actually been injured by physicians, especially in the case of epidural steroid injections (the steroids used, by the way, are NOT DEA-approved for use in the spine!) . This is called an iatrogenic condition, meaning doctor-caused, and is how I was damaged and acquired my injury of Adhesive Arachnoiditis. It is morally wrong, it is torture, to lump chronic & intractable pain patients in with addicts! No cures exist for our conditions, only palliative care. Please do not punish us with slanted statistics to protect those who choose to be addicts. Among chronic & intractable pain patients, the addiction rate is LESS THAN 3%. Without proper treatment with opioid medication, we are not only miserable, we are unproductive. We cannot hold down jobs without pain relief. Without proper pain relief, you sentence us to die from adrenal failurREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Nashville, TN writes:
Many of the patients receiving treatment with opiates are disabled and on a fixed income. It is already difficult to afford the medication - it is wrong to demand more. People who are being treated for legitimate conditions should not be penalized further.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Lake City, FL writes:
Why do chronic pain sufferers, that use opiates responsibly, have to fund rehab for drug addicts? It's hard enough to get our legitimate prescriptions filled each month, we should not be taxed for medication that we need to help us deal with our pain.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Porterville, CA signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Avon, OH signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Youngstown, OH signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Cleveland, OH writes:
The drug problem is in the streets not in the doctors office!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Glasgow, KY writes:
Why should Chronic pain patients have to pay a tax to help addicts when the addicts are the reason it is so difficult to get our medications in the first place? There is no way they are getting their "drugs" with legitimate prescriptions after all the hoops I've had to jump through in my condition! I didn't ask for disability. I didn't ask for chronic pain that only opioids can even touch. However, addicts knew they were wrong the moment they took one pill too many. Yet, they still went further down that path. And they sure know they are wrong when they steal from friends and family to support their habit! I have to pay for my own treatment, make them pay for theirs! They chose their lot, I didn't have a choice!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 5th, 2016Someone from Jellico, TN signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Oak Harbor, WA signed.
Jun 5th, 2016Someone from Mansfield, OH writes:
Are you also going to tax diabetics' insulin to fund anti-obesity programs? This is the most ludicrous thing I've heard and I've heard a lot of ludicrous things surrounding chronic pain patients lately. Chronic pain patients who have ZERO choice in their condition (and most taking opiods do so because there are no other feasible treatment options left) should NOT bear the brunt of the heroin epidemic... Make no mistake, no matter how many reports from special interest groups trying to implicate prescription opioids, this is a HEROIN epidemic and the prohibition of prescription opioids from patients who need them will do NOTHING to stop it. Those who claim their addiction started with prescription opioids either abused their prescription without their doctor's knowledge or they obtained them illegally on the streets. The vast majority of patients in pain DO NOT abuse or divert their medication, and they know that absolutely or wouldn't even consider this tax. This tyranny against the chronic pain community needs to stop! My votes WILL be targeted against all in government who participate in this sham!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Mastic, NY signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Petaluma, CA signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Wausau, WI writes:
This would be an unfair tax on a needed pain treatment for chronic pain sufferers including many veterans and disabled people unable to bear additional costs. With the costs of prescriptions already at outrageous numbers to tax the people least able to afford it is unconscionable. Insuran e companies should be paying for the cost of drug treatment under the ACA act and all insurances should be providing coverage as this addiction treatment is a ment and medical health problem.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Palm Beach Gardens, FL signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Silver Springs, NY signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Clarksburg, MD signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Palm Beach Gardens, FL writes:
Any politician that supports this bill needs to be voted out. I would urge all 100 million chronic pain patients to toss these idiots out on their asses.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Sheboygan, WI writes:
People with chronic pain have already been told no renewal the pain management want patients to come every three months for spinal block that can paralyze you or may not work at all. Cost over $2000 with my private insurance covers $1000 I had pain control prior now I have been bed ridden from pain. I wasn't even offered to come off slowly from pain meds just cold turkey which can kill a person. We r entitled to be treated humanely but are not those with chronic pain going to pm are being monitered monthly so there is no abuse. There should be no tax on meds we need.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Sheboygan, WI writes:
People with chronic pain have already been told no renewal the pain management want patients to come every three months for spinal block that can paralyze you or may not work at all. Cost over $2000 with my private insurance covers $1000 I had pain control prior now I have been bed ridden from pain. I wasn't even offered to come off slowly from pain meds just cold turkey which can kill a person. We r entitled to be treated humanely but are not those with chronic pain going to pm are being monitered monthly so there is no abuse. There should be no tax on meds we need.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Clearlake, CA signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Palm Beach Gardens, FL signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Clearlake, CA signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Corning, CA signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Atlanta, GA writes:
This tax is ridiculous. Opioids are not a "choice" people in chronic pain GET to make. It's a lifeline. You want to tax this, but continue to subsidize the sugar industry which has created a nation of overweight people????REPORT COMMENTS
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