If you’re like me, sleep (or lack of) has taken on a whole new dimension now that we’re in the final sprint toward election day 2020. The routine goes something like this.

4 am: Startle awake with an unshakable four-year-old knot of dread. Open eyes and await adjustment to darkness. Reach for eyeglasses. Grasp for phone. Avoid knocking over water glass. Review New York Times and Washington Post headlines. Dip into Instagram. Engage in futile mental gymnastics to expel anxiety. Rummage around in the recesses of brain synapses to capture words to convey disgust, anger, and fear. Cancel failed brain synapses. Resign to the fact that words are wholly inadequate.

5 am: Stop reading news breaks. Put down the phone. Surrender to emotional exhaustion. Close eyes. Break out all idiosyncratic tricks to fall back asleep. Wake up at a reasonable time. Go about daily work and tasks while harboring dread about the next news cycle. Repeat the next day.

If you can relate to the above, you may want to watch an emotional video recently aired by Jimmy Kimmel. The video, produced by Kimmel and his wife, Molly, catalogues the struggles of their son, Billy Kimmel, who was born with congenital heart defects — a pre-existing condition that has required multiple surgeries. Kimmel, Molly, and their production crew have managed to find the images and the words that should – if Americans are paying attention and if enough of us still care about one another – move voters to vote with their hearts and save protections for the more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

I’m pretty certain Kimmel’s video won’t derail my 4 am routine, but it sure gives me a glimmer of hope.

The post Vote with Your Heart appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Regardless of party affiliation or which party’s candidates voters cast their ballots for on November 6, the big winners in the midterm elections are all Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.

That’s because as of January 3, 2019, when the 116^th Congress convenes, Republican-led efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be blocked by a Democratic majority in the House. For at least the next two years, Americans can sleep more soundly and stop worrying about being denied healthcare insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition, or being charged more for coverage because of one or more pre-existing conditions, or discovering that their insurance denies coverage for services or treatments associated with a pre-existing condition.

Unfortunately, the news media and party pundits continue to waste valuable reporting time on which party was the biggest winner – Democrats for taking back the House or Republicans for holding on to the majority in the Senate. As the pundits continue to push the winner/loser line and who is up and who is down in the polls, they’re giving scant air time to the most important story that touches the lives of all Americans—affordable and dependable access to healthcare.

Democrats, in particular, are missing the opportunity to trumpet what might be the most consequential result of the midterm elections and drive home the message that Democrats have just won a victory that protects all Americans and their families. Incredibly, Democrats once again are failing to craft a unified message that reminds voters that Democrats belong to the party that conceived of and committed itself for more than eighty years to compassionate, life-saving, and family-affirming programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.

A new message for Democrats

Democrats, if you’re paying attention, here’s my suggestion for the most important message to drive home from now until 2020:

America, because of our steadfast commitment to your health and well-being, you can stop worrying about being denied health coverage if

• You are one of the 82 million Americans with a pre-existing condition with employer-based coverage.
• You are one of the 50 to 130 million, or 19 to 50 percent of non-elderly Americans, with some type of pre-existing condition.
• You are one of the 44 million Americans with high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
• You are one of the 34 million individuals suffering from asthma or chronic lung disease.
• You are in the group of the 34 million people who have osteoarthritis and other joint disorders.
• You are a parent with a child who is suffering from a childhood illness, because 1 in 4 children might have been denied coverage if the protections of the Affordable Care Act had been eliminated.

And what are those pre-existing conditions? The list is long and encompasses most of the most common ailments. According to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, here are just some of the pre-existing conditions that insurers used to routinely deny coverage for prior to enactment in 2014 of the Affordable Care Act:

• HIV/AIDS
• Lupus
• Alcohol abuse/drug abuse with recent treatment
• Mental disorders
• Alzheimer’s/dementia
• Multiple sclerosis
• Rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other inflammatory joint disease
• Muscular dystrophy
• Cancer within some period of time (e.g. 10 years)
• Severe obesity
• Cerebral palsy
• Organ transplant
• Congestive heart failure
• Paraplegia
• Coronary artery/heart disease, bypass surgery
• Paralysis
• Chrohn’s disease/ulcerative colitis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema
• Pending surgery or hospitalization
• Diabetes mellitus
• Penumocystic pneumonia
• Epilepsy
• Pregnancy or expectant parent
• Hemophilia
• Sleep apnea
• Hepatitis C
• Stroke
• Kidney disease, renal failure
• Transsexualism

The post Big winners in 2018 midterms? Every American with a pre-existing condition appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Republicans would like us to believe that the abominable “healthcare” bill they passed yesterday in the House of Representatives keeps the Obamacare requirement for insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.  Don’t be fooled. It doesn’t. What it does is turn decision-making over to states, who can simply ask for a waiver and, poof, they can allow insurance companies to deny coverage, or charge higher premiums for people with these conditions–as they did in the dark ages before Obamacare started saving lives and saving families from medical bankruptcy.

That’s shocking. But even more shocking is the list of things that qualify as pre-existing conditions under this bill. Below is an alphabetical list of them, offered by Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]. Note that, by the time you are 40 years old, you’ve probably had at least one of these, Or, you  or your child may have been born with one of them, making you or members of your family uninsurable–or insurable at only at the highest of rates–from day one.

AIDS/HIV, acid reflux, acne, ADD, addiction, Alzheimer’s/dementia, anemia, aneurysm, angioplasty, anorexia, anxiety, arrhythmia, arthritis, asthma, atrial fibrillation, autism, bariatric surgery, basal cell carcinoma, bipolar disorder, blood clot, breast cancer, bulimia, bypass surgery, celiac disease, cerebral aneurysm, cerebral embolism, cerebral palsy, cerebral thrombosis, cervical cancer, colon cancer, colon polyps, congestive heart failure, COPD, Crohn’s disease..cystic fibrosis, DMD, depression, diabetes, disabilities, Down syndrome, eating disorder, enlarged prostate, epilepsy, glaucoma, gout, heart disease, heart murmur, heartburn, hemophilia, hepatitis C, herpes, high cholesterol, hypertension, hysterectomy…kidney disease, kidney stones, kidney transplant, leukemia, lung cancer, lupus, lymphoma, mental health issues, migraines, MS..muscular dystrophy, narcolepsy, nasal polyps, obesity, OCD, organ transplant, osteoporosis, pacemaker, panic disorder, paralysis, paraplegia, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy, restless leg syndrome, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, seizures, sickle cell disease, skin cancer, sleep apnea, sleep disorders, stent, stroke, thyroid issues, tooth disease, tuberculosis, ulcers

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