Stop the Opiate Tax aka The Lifeboat Act
Public Comments (806)
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Jun 8th, 2016Someone from Eau Claire, WI writes:
No! This is discrimination against people with chronic pain. People that already have extremely low incomes. This "act" goes against the right to the Pursuit of Happiness because chronic pain sufferers will not be able to afford their pain medication - medication they need for quality of life. -
Jun 8th, 2016Someone from Vevay, IN signed.
Jun 8th, 2016Someone from Glenwood, GA writes:
This is not right for a lot of people with chronic pain and other pain that is life time suffering! Why should we have to suffer more with having to pay this tax. Most of us are disable for life and will have this pain for life. We only get by with with min. Mecicare which does not even pay our bills, get our food or things we need to live on. Most of us have worked hard up to the point of having to go on disability with chronic pain. I was a nurse for 30 years. A very good nurse. It was my life to take care of others. My belief was God first, patients and family next and myself last. I was a great nurse. I hurt myself a lot in handing my patients but I never turned in workman comp or tried to screw the system. I worked hard everyday even if I had to go to the bathroom to tear up and get myself together and go again. When my back gave out and I had to have 2 back surgeries, that was the end of my working days. I live each day in constant pain. I still smile and try to help others when my pain level is off the wall. I used to buy what I wanted and now I do without so that my bills can be paid. This tax is not needed and will only bring more pain to those that need the meds. Those going thru the treatment is the ones that should pay and not the disable that this pain is the only way they can get up everyday and try to have some type of living. I am all for drug rehab centers but not tax my med because it is the only thing that helps me feel like I can keep going on. I think more thinking on this tax is needed to understand who is going to be hurt the most. I agree that the people who somehow need to pay for the cost of drug rehab program are the drug rehah users, and not the people who never will be using the drug program. The opiate meds are used to relieve chronic pain so they/we/me can have somewhat of a decent quality of life while living with the unbearable pain .This tax will be a hardship on us that need this meds even to the point if we can afford it or not.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 8th, 2016Someone from Eau Claire, WI signed.
Jun 8th, 2016Someone from Elkmont, AL writes:
Taxing opioid medication to pay for addicts to get treatment will only cause more harm. Insurance companies already balk at paying for pain medications and put them into the highest co-pay categories. This will push many to stop paying for them all together. Which will cause those of us who have legitimate chronic pain issues to seek other means of relief and let's face it, some of those won't always be legal or safe. And you know what, that's going to create more addicts. If I lose my pain medication for my severe fibromyalgia and excruciating neck pain due to degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, and neuroforaminal narrowing then I will become unable to work. For your $3 a script to go towards ?treating? an addict (if that?s where the money even ends up) you will turn me from a working, productive member of society into a bed ridden, pain filled drain who depends on disability and Medicaid and food stamps to survive. That cost will far outweigh what you gained by taxing pain medications. And I daresay I won't be the only one affected this way. I have great sympathy for those with substance abuse problems, I have and have had family members with them and I've lived with it and seen up close the devastation it can cause. But taxing pain medication is a random and ineffective way to combat the problem and provide help for those who need it. Don't vote for this tax, it places an unfair burden on those who are already burdened with pain and have a hard enough time paying for their medications already.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 8th, 2016Someone from Guntersville, AL signed.
Jun 8th, 2016Someone from Spring Hill, FL writes:
It's time for politicians to learn how to distinguish between pain patients and drug addicts. They are not one in the same and the pain patients should not be financially punished because addicts are, well, addicts. Take the pills away tomorrow and your still going to have addicts. Let them pay for their own treatment. They can work picking up trash on the side of the highway to pay back the cost of their treatment. The sunshine will do them some good.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Massillon, OH signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Surprise, AZ signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Apalachin, NY writes:
It is despicable to punish someone who has an illness and needs treatment. This is akin to taxing insulin, or anit-hypertensive medications. People who live with chronic pain disorders, cancers, auto-immune disorders and the like, often rely upon opioid pain medications, to live some semblance of a normal life.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Martinsville, VA signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Dawsonville, GA writes:
Their cost to the public is off. One cents per mg for a 100 mg tablet is $1. If you take two a day you will pay $60 per month. Don't believe that insurance will pick it up, the consumer will. If 5% of prescription drug users develope a problem, why are the other 95% being charged? So no the total cost won't be 75 cents per month.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Washburn, IL signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Piqua, OH signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from New Port Richey, FL writes:
Please do not make it harder for we chronic pain sufferers to get our meds.I agree with closing pill mills but my dr.is a licensed anesthesiologist pain dr.my dr for 14 years With severe spinal stenosis and needing rods and a cage i need my pain meds as 2 nuero surgeons have said surgery wont help me.tyREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Palm Desert, CA writes:
Now, on top of being tortured and having to fight for the human right to not suffer in pain, we are being taxes because of those who do and will abuse drugs? This is discrimination and is the same if we taxed a religion or race to support those who break the laws.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Mechanicsburg, PA writes:
Why tax suffering? Do you tax other medicines like this? Access to pain meds is a human right. Its RECOGNIZED WORLDWIDE as a basic human right. People in chronic pain will pay the most into this..people that can least afford to spend even an extra penny. People that will NEVER take part in any of the programs it's supposedly raising money to develop. We all know that's a crock. It's town to fight FOR pain patients..NOT against them.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Luverne, AL signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Warner Robins, GA writes:
I have chronic back pain from being in a two car wrecks I have one herniated disc and to severely slipped disc without pain medication I have trouble doing in the room small things brushing my teeth putting on my shoes washing and drying clothes washing dishes playing with my grandchildren walking for very long before my legs get shaky this is not the life I signed up for if I have something to take the edge off I can function better not only as a human but as a wife a mother and a grandmother. If you pass this to have taxes on the payment Acacian we need just to live or should I say have quality of life then you're taking it away and hurting the people are already hurting the most I'm not an addict I'm just a chronic pain h if you pass this to have taxes on the payment Acacian we need just to live or should I say have quality of life then you're taking it away and hurting the people are already hurting the most I'm not an addict I'm just a person with chronic back pain that will never get better & I will never be free from it. I want to live not just existREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Roseville, MI writes:
I am a Chronic Pain Patient, My medical history is Hydrocephalus, Chiari Malformation, C 3-7 Cervical Fusion, severe spinal stenosis and severe scoliosis. I depend on opiates for some quality of life. My 86 year old mother also depends on opiates for the ability to even ambulate from the chair to the bed to the bathroom. Taxing the people who need these medications is just WRONG!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Morgantown, PA signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Pittsburgh, PA signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Birmingham, AL writes:
I am a chronic pain patient - I AM NOT AN ADDICT. I was dusgnisrd 3 years Sho with s severely inflamed nerve root in the L5/S1. Afterneeting with an orthopedic Dr. and many test performed by my UAB neurosurgeon with 20 years Navy service, I'm told my condition will never go into remission. I only have quality of life with pain meds. I am drug tested every 3 months. I have the save pain management Dr. For 3 years. Please - don't pass this tax which hurts the very patients who need these medications - PLEASE!!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Columbus, IN signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Poplar, WI signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from West Palm Beach, FL signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Humble, TX writes:
We need to stop being punished for having chronic pain and RARE PAIN diseases that the government gives NO FUNDING for research! Stop our pain and give us quality of life! Not being able to get out of bed is not living!! The suicide rates will continue to climb as you call it OPIOD overdose we call it suicide because the pain becomes to much to bare 24/7 365 days a year and my pain is worse than non terminal cancer, childbirth and that is just ONE condition and I have a page of pain conditions! Treat the ENTIRE PICTURE!!! Stop this criminal injustice for my human rights to live!!!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Mount Dora, FL writes:
How stupid. Haven't these people learned anything? When abusers are caught, fine them! Legitimate users should not have to subsidize abusers rehab. This kind of tax should be illegal.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from West Palm Beach, FL writes:
Stop punishing pain patients because of abusers and addicts!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Reston, VA writes:
Taxing disabled people in pain to pay for heroin/fentanyl addiction makes no sense at all. Please reconsider.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Houston, TX signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Sherman, TX writes:
Obama put in a billion dollars for drug addiction treatment programs. Lobbyists line the halls to get their share of it for their corporations owning addiction centers. All you have done is create an additional increase deficit on our already taxed government. Leave the Doctor/Patient relationships alone. Nothing was wrong w/it before our gov., got involved. Deal w/Iran and stay out of healthcare!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Gresham, OR signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Archer, FL writes:
Chronic pain patients need these medications every bit as much as heart patients need their medications. Why is congress turning a blind eye to our need for pain relief? Why is it politically correct to criticize our need? We are not addicts, we are people just like you, we work, care for our families just like everyone else. Who is putting a target on our backs? We jump through a miriad of hoops every month just to get the Meds that keep us functional, diabetics do not, but we muSt because law makers and insurance companies force us to juMp.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Moxee, WA signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Reno, NV writes:
This really is BS! My poor wife has been hospitalized over 30 times in the last 8 years for her very painful health issues.....it's bad enough that Drs aren't allowed to write or call in refills on certain medications any longer , now she has to make a monthly appointment for the specific purpose of having her meds replenished ... That's an added expense of an office visit , a copayment and a bill to United Health Care just to get her meds.... Stop the madness!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 7th, 2016Someone from Dalton, GA signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Saint Libory, IL signed.
Jun 7th, 2016Someone from Bakersfield, CA writes:
We suffer enough!! Don't tax the one item that gives us a little bit of peace!!REPORT COMMENTS
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