OPMC Reform Bill Vetoed by Govenor Pataki


Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004
From: ellen lubarsky
Subject: mmi 12/15 4PM URGENT OPMC UPDATE-PLEASE READ
To: ChronicLyme@yahoogroups.com, Lyme-aid@yahoogroups.com,  LoveyOnLyme@yahoogroups.com

Dec. 15, 2004, Time: 10:13

Tonight is the deadline for the Governor to decide about whether the OPMC Reform bill will become law. Yesterday we  heard that the Governor was leaning toward vetoing the bill  -  but behind the scenes work plus (hopefully) thousands of our calls and emails have forestalled this.

Right now our grass roots activism could make all the difference . The Governor is being pushed by his Department of Health to veto the bill, so we MUST let him know how many of us there are so that he knows how  unpopular a veto would be.

REMEMBER THAT THIS ACTION IS FOR EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT STATE YOU LIVE IN:

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUESTED:

1) Unless you have already contacted the Governor this week , please call and email him now (see contact info below).

2) Please get everyone you know to contact Pataki now and urge him to sign the OPMC Reform bill A4274b.

PATAKI CONTACT INFO: Email Governor Pataki Go to the following web  address  and scroll down a bit. You will find a form on which  to include your email message.  http://161.11.3.75/

 Telephone Governor Pataki at: 518 -474-8390

 Whether you call or email or do both, the message  should be, "Please sign the OPMC Reform bill, A4274b"

THIS IS A REAL EMERGENCY.  VETO OF THIS BILL COULD SERIOUSLY HURT THE LYME COMMUNITY.  If it's vetoed, we will, of course, continue to work to protect our doctors.  However, the amount of work would be a huge uphill battle.  PLEASE ACT NOW.  THIS MINUTE.    

Dec. 15, 2004, Time: 13:13

Rumors out of the Governors office have told us to expect a veto today.

I don't know about you, but I am madder than I can express.

WE ALL NEED TO CALL THE GOVERNOR RIGHT NOW AND EXPRESS OUR ANGER AT HIS RUMORED INTENTION TO VETO THE BILL.

PLEASE BE POLITE BUT FIRM.   THE POLITE PART IS IMPORTANT .

PHONE NUMBER IS 518 -474-8390 .  YOU WILL PROBABLY GET A MACHINE SO LEAVE YOUR NAME ADDRESS WITH ZIP AND PHONE NUMBER.

THIS IS FOR EVERYBODY, EVEN IF YOU JUST CALLED THE GOVERNOR FIVE MINUTES AGO.  CALL AGAIN.

 A sample message would be "I have heard that the Governor intends to veto OPMC Reform Bill A4274b.. I am a Lyme patient and am furious about the Governor's abandonment of the rights of sick patients ."

I'm too angry and upset now to think of other firm but civil messages, so please post some other suggestions.  

Dec. 15, 2004, Time: 13:53

Suggestion for your email:  
This is for Governor Pataki, my name and address are blah blah blah.

I'm calling because I just heard that the Governor intends to veto the OPMC Reform bill, A4274b.  I am heartsick and outraged that the Governor could turn his back on people who are SO sick and have fought SO hard for justice.""

Please call and leave your message of what this betrayal by the Government would mean to you, shoudl the Governor , in fact, veto the bill (as it was just leaked that he is now planning to do).

This may go on until midnight tonight, so keep calling.  BUT PLEASE KEEP YOUR MESSAGE CIVIL.  WE DON'T WANT TO SAY ANYTHING THAT WILL ENABLE THEM TO DISMISS US AS BEING NUTS.  

Dec. 15, 2004, Time: 17:01

Dear Lyme friends, I'm sorry to have to tell you that Governor Pataki did just veto the OPMC Reform bill.

Thank you so much to all of you who worked so hard and so long on this bill.  For sick people to have shown this kind of valor is amazing.

It ain't over until we have protected our doctors.  I will be talking to people who have been working behind the scenes to see what steps we can take next.

When you've been this sick  for as long as many of us have been you sort of learn to become like one of those Shmoo dolls that I used to have as a kid.  Do you remember those large weighted balloons that you would  sock and it would fall down , but no matter how many times you knocked it down, it would bounce up again.

Maybe the image of the Phoenix rising from the ashes is more heroic, but somehow the Shmoo is more like how I feel now.

So tonight we're down, but we will pop-up in our old Shmoo-like way soon enough.

Anyone who still has energy to call and let the Governor know that he has betrayed some very sick people, please do call.

 Keep it polite, because it will have more effect that way  -  not because I am feeling particularly polite to him at the moment.

What we have gotten in the last few years is a state legislature that has become sympathetic to Lyme patients .

We could not get the Governor to sign our bill because of other pressures brought to bear on him.  But we have at least gotten  him to hear the Lyme issues  - unlike when we started.

So there's a lot of work to do.  I suspect that the Governor will start again next session (January)  on his own OPMC Reform bill and we will get involved with that..  This is just going by what i had heard previously and I won't know this for sure for a few days.

So please spread the word about the veto. Cry, scream, throw things.  Do whatever you need to do to deal with this disgusting treatment we have gotten from the Governor.

But please let's keep united.  We will certainly ultimately win.  It's just gonna take longer than we thought. Much love to all, Ellen

Dec. 16, 2004

Hi follks,
I got a call from Monica Miller this morning with the following message (paraphrased , since I couldn't write fast enough):

'The bill sponsors and Monica are determined to introduce a new bill in January that will pass the legislature and be signed next year.'

So, Lyme patients have always vowed "we will not go away." We now have the same pledge from Monica and the bill sponsors.

Ellen

Dec. 16, 2004

WHERE WE ARE NOW

As you know, the OPMC Reform bill has been vetoed by Governor Pataki. Right now we can help keep our doctors safe by continuing to make noise about the OPMC injustice and the persecution of Lyme doctors.

Keep the light shining on this issue, and we can bide time until there is a law to protect our docs.

We ALL need to call or write the Governor now.

Ask him what he is going to do to for you now that he has vetoed the bill that would have protected the doctor who is keeping you alive.

I'm sure you all have some pretty intense feelings about his veto, so let him know. Just don't get nasty or threaten him. He still has power, and we need him.

PATAKI CONTACT INFO:
Email Governor Pataki
Go to the following web
address and scroll down a bit. You will find a form on which to include your email message. http://161.11.3.75/

Telephone Governor Pataki at: 518 -474-8390

Please write letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Tell them about the persecution of Lyme doctors in New York and across the country. Mention Pataki's veto of a bill that would have given physicians some due process where they now have none.

As I just wrote in a previous post, Monica and the bill's sponsors are determined to introduce another bill in January that will pass and be signed into law.

Monica has asked me to express her deep gratitude and admiration for the fight that the Lyme community has put up.

We have, over the last four years , turned the NY state legislature around so that it is sympathetic to Lyme causes. So we would not expect another long fight to get a bill out of the legislature.

The Governor being another story, we can think of our letter writing and calling campaigns as "raising his consciousness" before the next bill reaches his desk.

You have all been wonderful in this fight. If our community can stay cohesive and you all continue to stand up the way you have (albeit most of our "standing up" has been while lying down) , we're gonna win.

Gandhi said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

We've certainly been through the first three stages. So that must be proof that we're gonna win. Right? Love to all you brave, wonderful people,

Ellen


Veto message by Governor George Pataki

These bills represent a well intentioned attempt to respond to what some licensees and patients perceive to be a bias on the part of BPMC and OPMC against non-conventional medical practices.

However, there is considerable opposition to the bill from a broad spectrum of interested parties. The Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians, the New York State Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the New York State Society of Physician Assistants, the New York State Administrative Law Judges Association, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, various patient advocates and the Department of Health are all opposed to one or more provisions of these bills.

While I agree with the sponsors and supporters of this legislation that any bias against non-conventional medical practitioners would be inappropriate, I am concerned that the bills could result in unnecessary and inappropriate delays in the process of disciplining medical professionals, and impede the efforts of BPMC and OPMC to protect the public against the small minority of physicians, physician assistants, and specialist assistants who are guilty of professional misconduct.

In the last decade, New York State's record in addressing the issue of professional medical misconduct has dramatically improved, and I am not willing to compromise that success by approving a series of procedural and substantive changes that could make the disciplinary process more cumbersome and complex. Much of the success in improving the disciplinary process over the last ten years is attributable to prior collaborative efforts by interested parties to review the structure, functions and operations of OPMC and BPMC and propose reforms to make the discipline process more effective and efficient. Absent further similar study and a reasonable consensus among interested parties, I cannot approve the far-reaching changes contemplated by this bill.

The bills are disapproved.  


version: 17. Dec. 2004
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