|
An open letter to: |
November 15, 1999 |
Dateline NBC: dateline@nbc.com
Nightline: niteline@abc.com
Montel Williams: montel4@aol.com
Oprah Winfrey: harpo@interaccess.com
Leeza: mail4leeza@aol.com
Sally Jesse Raphael: sally@sallyjr.com
Today Show: today@nbc.com
Meet The Press: mtp@msnbc.com
Good Morning America: netaudr@abc.com
This Morning: andsvcs@cbs.com
Later Today: latertoday@nbc.com
Crosstalk: go to http://www.crosstalk.org and select "contact us"
48 HRS: 48hours@cbsnews.com
60 Minutes II: 60II@cbsnews.com
Dear Abby: go to http://www.uepress.com/ups/abby/html/askabby.html
Ann Landers: go to http://www.creators.com/lifestyle/landers/writelan.asp
Geraldo Rivera: geraldocbs@aol.com
Karen Heywood (Producer-Dateline NBC) karen.heywood@nbc.com
President Clinton: president@whitehouse.gov
Hillary Clinton: firstlady@whitehouse.gov
The Dallas Morning News: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
The Fort Worth Star Telegram: features@star-telegram.com
J.R. Labbe: jrlabbe@star-telegram.com
Senator Phil Gramm: http://congress.org/cgi-bin/oo_compose.pl?dir=congressorg2&mailaddress1=txsr
Senator Kay Baily Hutchison: http://congress.org/cgi-bin/oo_compose.pl?dir=congressorg2&mailaddress1=txjr
Representative Joe Barton: http://congress.org/cgi-bin/webreturn.pl?link=www.house.gov/barton/&dir=congressorg2
I, and many others like me, are writing to you today for one reason. HOPE. As in last
hope.
Our plight concerns Lyme disease (LD). It is a controversial subject within Federal agencies, medical communities, insurance companies, even family and friends.
As individuals, we have lost our careers, committed suicides, exhausted ourselves financially, terminated relationships, lived a hellish life, and ultimately, a whimpering death.
As a medical community, it has become open warfare. Doctors that openly treat LD patients are subjected to ridicule, victims of extensive "professional" investigations that resemble McCarthy-style witch hunts, and loss of their practices. We cannot even begin to estimate the loss to the families of these doctors.
For those doctors that toe the "official" line, the result is lucrative consulting contracts and paid testimony for insurance companies. The NIH even lauds the worst enemy of LD sufferers, and uses erroneous citations that are reminiscent of Dr. Goebel’s Big Lie.
As a community, we have written to newspapers. Some excellent ONE TIME articles appear, and the reporter is never heard from again on that subject. They are greeted with a chorus of bless you from the patients, and derisive snorts about know-nothing-reporters from the insurance/bad-doctor community. Guess which one keeps their attention? Yet, I still remember the historical outcome from "The Octopus"; the regulation and remaking of an entire harmful industry.
As community, we have written our State and Federal representatives. The Senate held hearings in 1993 concerning LD. Following the hearings, Senators Dodd, Kennedy, and Metzenbaum made promises concerning a Lyme Disease Initiative for funding research and cures. This has not happened.
As a individuals, we have written our State and Federal representatives. This is usually met with silence, or irrelevant form letters. "As always, your views are important to me."
As individuals, we have fought, and fought, and fought with insurance companies. Within the "treating" medical community, the preferred treatment is four to six weeks of IV antibiotics, with repeated courses if the symptoms persist or reappear. The "official" position, if even acknowledged by insurance companies, is 4 weeks IV antibiotics, and you are cured. Yet, if you have juvenile acne, they will allow up to two years for treatment WITH THE EXACT SAME ANTIBIOTIC.
Doing battle with insurance companies is only part of the battle. Most of us must also fight our employers. Thanks to the Employee Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), most employers became self-insured. They pay (pay?) from company assets, use employees and third party administrators (TPAs) to run the show. As in "The Rainmaker", their policy is deny, deny, deny. Your recourse? Federal court, no damages allowed.
As individuals, and as a community, we have exhausted all the remedies open to us. That’s why we are writing to you, asking you to use your clout, your media presence, and yes, some of your money. You are our last hope.
Taken individually, our stories would seemingly be easily dismissed as whining "poor little me." However, if an enterprising staffer accumulated all of the stories, performed statistical analysis, plotted the demographics, interviewed the entities that are "keeping us down", there is more than one-hell-of-a-story here. You have a major health catastrophe coupled with a blockbuster expose.
You have my permission to use any and all information contained on my web site.
R. James Martin
501 Sycamore Lane, #327
Euless, Texas 76039
817.540.2272
