can you help?

[Guest guest]

Another request from Dawn for letters about wls. If you can help, I would

sincerely appreciate it. Look at it this way, if it gets approved in Ohio,

you can all move to Ohio to get your surgery if necessary! :-) But

seriously, she says this will help other states also if it gets passed here

in OH.

Carole

Message: 4

Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 02:57:05 -0000

Subject: one more plea for help.... (are you in Oregon?)

As many of you know I am fighting for justice for all of us to get

legislation to recognize obesity as the major health issue that it is

and stop the prejudice many insurance companies have against WLS by

excluding it from their policies and some making it almost impossible

to get an approval.

I have been working very hard to gather information to present to

many state representatives (especially one in particular) to fight

for our cause. Other states have done it and with enough information

from us this state can too! Please if you haven't already done so,

all I am asking for is a letter telling a little about your struggle

and issues, or if you have already had the surgery, your victory in

this battle of obesity, or if you haven't what WLS can help you

achieve.

I have 5 letters so far, and am planning to present my packet to the

representatives within 2-3 weeks. I have also partnered up with

Walter Lindstrom who is to be advising me in this process. He has

helped many people in this battle against obesity and has worked with

other people in other states on legislative issues.

I met a great woman at a support group meeting. She also belongs to

a couple of these yahoogroups and her name is Misa. She said it

best in an email the other day to so many of you:

" I really believe in this cause...whatever you can offer

please do so...I myself submitted a 1 page letter...nothing fancy

just a lil' about my battle. It could probably even be the sort of

letter you write to the insurance company to convince them to approve

the surgery or for those that already wrote one you could

amend/update it appropriately....Afterall it is a fight for WLS. "

So please help if you can. Help all of us who cannot get this

surgery approved and help those who don't know they need it yet or

will someday. If you can't write a letter to help let me know if you

can help w/ the costs associated w/ copying and mailing this packet.

Any help at this point is appreciated.

Email your letter to me at blueyedawn@... or

dawnrhinehart@... and make sure it includes your full name,

address and phone # so that legislators can verify your story with

you if they want/need to.

Sincerely,

Dawn Rhinehart

And for those that are

wondering about the bill it is online at

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=124_SB_162

for all who want to see it!