Dear Presidential Candidates,

I would like to be very candid with you about my life because I am a representation of many silent voters who are watching you carefully. I am an American who is living with chronic illness and I am also an American who has a special needs child. It may be rare to have both a debilitating disease and a child with one but here we are and I want share 6 points that are important to me. By the way, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and my son has Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Neither disease has a cure so our problems are life long, so we hope for long term solutions to the issues that are important to us.

So, how can my life be important for your champaign?

1: My son collects Social Security Disability Income.
Thus far, I do not. My disease has become more debilitating since my diagnosis and some day I may choose to apply for Social Security Income, but the difficult process is enough to make me steer clear of it for now. Everything I have learned and experienced about social security is difficult. I don’t have to go any farther than my phone to realize how broken our system has become. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate this vital lifeline but we have developed a love/hate relationship with this program that was supposed to be designed to help children and families like mine.

2: We are directly effected by drug companies charging outrageous prices on medications.
My son was prescribed a medication for a type of catastrophic epilepsy called Infantile Spasms. We saw a huge increase in the price of this medication after FDA approval. He has since started a new specialty medication and because of the price, we are required by insurance to get preapproval every three months. This means I am a sick with worry every three months wondering if they will approve the only medication that has helped my son have an improved quality of life and seizure control. When has it been acceptable business practice to jeopardize lives to make money? The practice of specialty medications being distributed only by speciality pharmacies has also become an issue. The problems some families run into with these pharmacies is inexcusable. These problems range from allowing delay in medication shipment (even if it means the patient will run out of medication) and dropping a patient without proper notification (we have experienced both).

3: I refused medication to treat my own disease because I didn’t know if I could afford it in the future.
In January our high deductible insurance starts a new year and we still don’t know if we will be able to afford the out of pocket cost until our deductible is met. More private insurance companies are offering skyrocketing deductibles with H.S.A. accounts. They try to say we can thus control our own health care with an H.S.A. but this is false. In the end we are paying a premium, pushing money into an H.S.A. account, and we still don’t have nearly enough money to cover these huge deductibles.

4: My son and I have missed out on equipment, medication and therapy needed to help us live the best quality of life.
Everything comes with a price tag and if you have a disease, are disabled, or have been diagnosed with something like autism or sensory issues, expect a huge price tag. My son has needed protective headgear and a bed enclosure for his epilepsy and we needed help paying for these steeply priced products. He have lived without many items that would certainly make life easier for both of us because paying the price for these items would be nearly impossible, even with assistance.

5: Getting help paying for the variety of different needs is complicated.
Life is already hard with these difficulties and so many people have to navigate the paperwork and hoops to try to get what is needed and/or prescribed. How to get help should be clear and require minimal paperwork.

6: Families are choosing between health and cost.
No one asks to be diagnosed with something life altering. No one asks to live a difficult life made harder by the system that seems to work against people like me and families like mine. The government needs to decide if it actually wants to help or just talk about it. Cutting funding for critical needs programs is a low practice that needs to be stopped. In the end, you aren’t messing with dollars, you are messing with lives.

We are supposed to be living in the greatest county but many Americans are without insurance or reasonable insurance plans to pay for their medication and health care. It is a tragedy when drug companies can set their own prices and have no regard to the lives effected when the medication patients need is out of reach. If you don’t believe it, go to the local hospital and ask questions instead of taking pictures. I guarantee parents still have to leave the hospital empty handed and without what they need to take care of themselves or a sick child. The life of the sick should never carry a price tag. How sad. It’s time to consider what life is like for those who need the most help.

*d*