Paging Dr. Frist: Severe Health Care Crisis Threatens Lives of Your Consti

[Egalia]

Okay, I know the Senate Majority Leader has other things on his mind, but I'm just one of those fools that won't stop trying.

Pasted below is an open letter from Mary Sue Bennett of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Ms. Bennett is one of many Tennesseans who will die if Governor Bredesen succeeds in his goal of balancing the budget by cutting hundreds of thousands of sick, elderly and disabled from the state's health care rolls.

According to Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national nonprofit consumer advocacy group, "What Bredesen is proposing is by far the largest state cutback in public health coverage in the history of the country. Many people will die. They will die silently and quietly outside of public view, but they will die."

Other states have received federal funds to bail them out of crises this severe. Yet, the Governor of Tennessee refuses even to ask for federal assistance. The democratic Governor says the political climate is such that it is futile to ask. Governor Bredesen refuses to ask even though the state has a certain senator in Washington who wields an inordinate amount of power.

The Senate Majority Leader says he is first and foremost a doctor.

The Governor won't ask, so I am asking, and Mary Sue Bennett is asking. Dr. Frist, your state is in the throes of a severe health care crisis. Tennesseans are going to die without your help.

The "Terry Schiavos of Tennessee" desperately need your help. Dr. Frist, please remember the people who sent you to Washington. Dr. Frist, you can save lives, if only you will.


A plea for life-saving health care, from
Mary Sue Bennett of Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

snippet:

I've been praying a lot and need to say what's on my heart. I have written to all our state legislators but I also want the people of Tennessee to know what will happen to some of us who depend on TennCare for our very lives. I am not a well-educated person but I have feelings, concerns and a mountain of fears right now.

I am only one of the 323,000 people to be cut, but without TennCare I will die. There is no way around it. I require tracheotomy supplies to prevent staph infections, which I will have to battle the rest of my life. A staph infection it is not pleasant, to put it mildly. A suction catheter is put down the trachea tube to suck out the phlegm. It hurts and you have to fight for breath. I also use a ventilator at night; otherwise my brain cells will die from lack of oxygen. I take 22 prescriptions for various health problems, including diabetes, osteoporosis, heart arrhythmia, depression, panic attacks, etc. Since I have no income, I cannot pay for these things. For the "lucky" ones who don't lose their TennCare, prescriptions will be limited to four or five a month. Tell me, how do you choose?

The rest of of Ms. Bennett's letter (and contact info for Frist & the Gov.) is here:

http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2005/05/paging-dr-frist-severe-health-care.html

[Egalia]

1. emails, phone numbers

Here's the contact info for the men in charge of all these lives in case some of you are also fools who won't give up. Too bad we can't transport a bunch of sick people to Washington so they can try to jolt Frist into remembering why the heck they sent him there.


Office of Senator Bill Frist, Washington, DC
202-224-3344
202-228-1264 (fax)
Email available only on website:
http://frist.senate.gov/
Nashville, TN
615-352-9411
615-352-9985 (fax))

Governor's Office
615.741.2001
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]