Thank you for contacting me with your support for H.R. 1020, the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2005. I appreciate hearing from you.

Like you, I recognize that chronic pain can be great detriment to living a healthy, full life. In addition to the personal suffering of those afflicted on a long term basis, studies show that pain is the leading cause of lost productivity in the employed population, costing employers almost $80 billion annually.

As you may know, H.R. 1020 would declare adequate pain care research, education, and treatment as national public health priorities. This bill has been referred to the subcommittee on Health, of which I am not a Member. Please be assured, should this legislation be brought before the House of Representatives during the 109th Congress, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.

You may be pleased to know that I was a co-sponsor of H.R. 1863, the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2003. Unfortunately, the Republican Leadership failed to bring this legislation before the House of Representatives for a vote during the 108th Congress. As you may know, this legislation, like H.R. 1020 would:

1. Establish a White House Conference on Pain Care for the purpose of: 1) increasing public awareness of pain as a significant health problem; 2) assessing the adequacy of pain care diagnosis and treatment; and 3) identifying barriers to appropriate pain care.

2. Authorize a National Center for Pain and Palliative Care Research within the National Institutes of Health.

3. Establish a pain and palliative care research and quality program within the Agency for Health Care Quality & Research. The program's function would include the collection and distribution of protocols and evidence-based practices for pain and palliative care.

4. Ensure that America's servicemen and women and veterans receive appropriate pain care services when seeking treatment at a health care facility of the Department of Defense or Veterans Administration.

5. Require health care providers within the military's TRICARE health care system to provide appropriate pain care services.

6. Ensure that patients enrolled in Medicare managed care plans receive appropriate pain care.

7. Authorize a public awareness campaign implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services to better educate patients, families, and other caregivers on the availability of appropriate pain care.

Please continue to contact me about the issues that concern you, as I both need and welcome your thoughts and ideas. As a service to my constituents, I maintain a website which contains valuable resources and information on Congressional activities. Please feel free to visit the website at http://www.house.gov/xxxxx for information on recent issues and to learn more about the services my office provides. If you have not done so already, please visit http://www.house.gov/xxxxx/signup.htm to subscribe to my e-mail updates.

I encourage you to contact me via email, telephone, or fax, because security measures are causing House offices to experience delays in receiving postal mail. My email address is: xxxxx@mail.house.gov. Please be sure to include your full name and address, including your zip code, in your message.

Very truly yours,
XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX
Member of Congress



JRI/bo

Confirmation # 1945280



****************************************************************
DISCLAIMER
I cannot guarantee the integrity of the text of this letter if it was not sent to you directly from my Congressional Email Account: @mail.house.gov. If you have any questions about the validity of this message, please email me at: xxxxxx@mail.house.gov or call my Washington, DC office at: xxx-xxx-xxxx. If you would like to be removed from my email update list, please email me your name and address at: @mail.house.gov and type "REMOVE" in the subject line.

*************************************************************


This is an email response I received after sending off a heated message to him, in regards to pain control in these United States. I removed my congressman's name due to privacy issues.
I also want to point out that the Republican congress is NOT listening to us.

Thankyou krash for taking the time out of your busy schedule and writing to your
Congressman. Because its taking up an important (quality of life) cause for
all of us here. We do at times feel powerless
against big time Government. I hope your voice is heard, I hope that the
elected officials hear all of us loud and clear on this subject. Its people like yourself
that keep these issues alive and from being buried under some politicians pile of
paperwork they are getting ready to send to the prez to be vetoed.
regards,
Alpha

Its not too late folks, write your congressman/senator and let them know your feelings. We are their constituents and we elect these officials. Knowing that, we need to keep on it.
Please take the time to do this.

Thanks Al, I know you have already done this. Everyone else, take the time to do this. I will post later the info to find your congressman to let them know this affects us. I plan to go to a coffee meeting that he holds regularly to check up on the progress on this bill.

Thanks again!

I must confess that I have been somewhat removed from the Congressional process but I do feel, more and more, the need to participate. Even if my opinion brings about no change whatsoever, I will feel better for having spoken up. Thanks Krash, for the impetus to do so. I am in Louisiana. I'll attempt to determine who and where to send my comments and then do so. Everyone on this board should understand the importance of this process. Will we become almost criminal in our pursuit of pain relief? Or will we change the perception and the laws regarding pain? I choose the latter...

Slow, I know exactly what you mean by feeling removed from the whole congressional process. I live in KY where legislature has been proposed and passed into law quicker than you can turn around.
I hope those in other states will take a more active role in policy so the same doesn't happen to them. Believe me, implications from these new laws are felt most by average law abiding citizens who now cannot receive medical treatment they deserve.
Thanks for the info on this bill and the links, Krash. It was very interesting and helpful.

I'm willing to bet my congressmen and Senate reps know me by name.. lol. At the very least their assistants do.

Here is a good link for everyone to locate and contact both your State Senators as well as your Congressional Representatives. It's a point and click locator, there's both email addresses as well as DC phone numbers. Note that these calls are NOT toll free, you DO pay long distance (isn't that BS.. you would think they would WANT to hear from us.. but then we might tell them a $52 million dollar baseball stadium in DC isn't more important than things like making contact phone numbers TOLL FREE!).. dang it, there I go again.. and I do try so hard to keep my politics off the boards. I did put it in parenthesis, does that cut me any slack? Anyway, we have stood silent on way too many issues for way too long. We have to make ourselves heard on many issues, please get your local contact information, put it in your email contact list and speed dial, keep your representatives informed on what you/we/I, the people, want from our government, and stop the free for all in DC... ew.. my activist is coming out.

Senate and Congressional Contact Information

- Hausecat

You have taken the time to do a commendable thing Hausecat. Because I tried googling w/o
success and wound up calling my County Election Board For Info.lol I want to personally
thank you for this at a time when the need is great for all pain patients to be heard by
those that put them in office.
Thanks again,
Alpha

WoW!
Hausecat, very noble indeed!
Many thanks for providing both the information here and the links. You've made this task of contacting and writing much easier for all of us.