Thread by @AuthorDelaneyW

[thread]

For those of you finding me via @courtneymilan @AnaMardoll, let me explain what I mean by this bill eliminates the ability to get renewals for chronic pain patients &why what Gillibrand is suggesting creates an absolute NO vote for supporting her. #OpioidCrisis #pain

(1) Before we even begin to discuss the situations this bill will create, no one who claims they are pro-life should be proposing, let alone supporting, a bill that limits a patient’s access to treatment for long term pain.

(2) The entire pro-choice platform revolves around the idea that medical treatment is for the Dr and the patient. Not the government. Not the Church. Not the community. It is for the patient and their dr to decide what’s best for them. Not anyone else.

(3) Also, her statement about doctors prescribing a month of pain meds for a root canal is anecdotal at best, completely false at it’s worse. No dentist prescribes this. Ever. When they do, it’s not a simple root canal but something requiring better pain treatment.

(4)The bill Gillibrand is authoring is the opposite of a pro-life platform or belief.

This bill is not a cure. In fact, it’s actually fuel for an already burning fire and will make the very situation she claims to want to stop, the opioid epdidemic, worse.

(5) People who keep saying that it accommodates for people who need pain meds over 7 days, or that the bill doesn’t stop chronic pain treatment, that it’s already in place many places, or that the prohibition on refills does not prohibit issuing a new prescription, please listen.

(6) When asked about concerns I have with this bill, Gillibrand’s response was the following:
* Thanks, hearing this from others too
* There's accommodations for chronic pain & major illnesses
* This is already the law in 14 states
Glad she’s hearing it but she’s wrong.

(7) The bill’s ‘accomodations’ for chronic pain patients are not acceptable and actually work to harm these patients by effectively eliminatig all treatment over 7 days, no matter how she tries to say it doesn’t.
The ‘accomodations’ in this plan make it impossible.

(8) How?
1- Patients would have to see a PM (pain management dr) every 7 days to get a new script. Physicians cannot write or refill prescriptions for opioids for “acute pain” for anything longer than 7 days, or they won’t get their license renewed.

(9) PMs would be (and already are for most) classed as a specialist visit copay by ins- which run higher (mine is $70). Patients would be forced to pay this every 7 days.

(10)
2- The mandatory UA required at all visits for pain meds and which most ins don’t cover fully or at all run anywhere from $100-$500 or more. This would have to be done at every renewal, so every 7 days.

(11)
3- Patients who have surgery/acute pain and need more than 7 days of pain meds would be forced to see already over-stretched PM drs to get them to write a script.

(12) They would need to be diagnosed as chronic instead of acute, which would be illegal because law already requires patients be 6 months into their pain to even begin to try and move from acute to chronic.

(13)
4- (related to 3) Even the alternative- a PM attends & prescribes at ALL surgeries so as to be able to treat the patient for their pain- still creates an impossible situation.

(14) The PM drs would have to find some way to say the surgery creates chronic pain before they could write a script of more than 7 days, since surgical pain is categorized as acute.

(15)
5-There are not enough pain Drs for this plan to even begin to be feasible for chronic pain patients. There are a very very limited number of PM Drs, and, as discussed above, the bill specifically makes them the only ones who could prescribe over 7 days.

(16)N GP’s, no surgeons, not any other dr could write scripts over 7 days (sadly this is already the case in many places) This bill will push them so far beyond their abilities that it again makes an impossible situation for chronic pain patients.

(17) I have two examples- first: I am on a pain mgmt plan with a PM dr. When I had emergency gallbladder surgery, I had to leave the hospital without any main meds and try to see my PM to get them. She had no appts avail for a month. I had to sit in her office for hours

(18) directly after being released from the hospital, without pain meds, hoping to see her inbetween other patients. It was hell. It’s inhumane.

(19) Second- there are exactly TWO PM drs in my region, serving ~ 2.5 million people. Between the two of them, they would have to see every single chronic pain patient every 7 days along with overseeing every single surgery so as to prescibe over 7 days when needed there as well.

(20)Just trying to do ONE of those things is impossible. Even if they both worked 24/7 doing JUST renewal appts, they couldn’t see every patient every 7 days. It’s an absolute,literal, impossibility.

(21)This bill would eliminate the treatment of pain for people who live in it or experience it over 7 days, no matter how you look at it. It creates an impossible situation for those of us who live in immense neverending pain and the drs who treat us.

(22)It’s entire purpose is to eliminate, as best they can, all pain treatments after 7 days. It doesn’t need to say “no scripts over/after 7 days ever” to do exactly that. It does so by creating requirements that are impossible to do.

(23)In fact, instead of helping lower/end the “opioid epidemic”, @SenGillibrand plan will make it worse. The bill will push even more chronic pain patients who are unable to meet the new impossible requirements to treat their pain in any way just to survive it.

@SenGillibrand (24) It will force more people to turn to illegal street drugs, like heroin, to treat their pain- the whole reason the bill would be passed/was created for in the first place. This bill will literally make the situation it is claiming to help, get even worse.

(25) This bill will, in effect, result in criminalizing pain and it’s treatment because as drs aren’t able to help them, chronic pain patients will see another.

(26) Then another. Then another. Dr ‘“shopping” for treatment will get them noticed and labeled in the system as ‘seekers’, eliminating any further paths for help.

(27) All this plan will do is kill more people. As people in pain learn they can’t afford/complete the new process requirements, we will not only a rise in overdose deaths, but also a rise in suicide as ppl try to escape a life in agony.

(28) So yes. This bill does make it impossible to get prescriptions renewed. It will make the situation worse in ALL areas. It’s punishing people for living in pain. Period. For her to be working on this with the sack of excrement that is @CoryGardner just adds to the insult.

(29) If you hung in here with me, thank you. I hope you listen and see the problem she is creating for so many people living life in excruciating pain every day. I hope you understand why I, and people like me, cannot support someone who has this stance on the opioid crisis. ~FIN

Edit: awe shit... I don’t have a SoundCloud or anything but, if you want to help -you can purchase my fav of my books here. It’s a dark romance dealing with suicidal ideation and cutting, healing and love.

And classic cars.

amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CCE…

#BooksToRead

*Gah. Pro-choice. Not life. I am pissed I didn’t catch that error.

THough... it is also opposite of pro-life too as it will promote suicide as a treatment option so, I guess it works. It’s both anti-pro-life and anti-pro-choice. That’s talent. It takes work to be so bad it’s bad across all platforms. 😂😂😂