H.R. 1608, the Lymphedema Treatment Act, would make Medicare cover lymphedema treatment by listing certain lymphedema treatment equipment -- including compression garments, bandaging systems, and the supplies they require -- as "durable medical equipment" under the Social Security Act. Lymphedema (which overloads damaged lymph nodes with protein-rich lymphatic fluid) is a debilitating condition, and most lymphedema sufferers get it as a result of cancer treatment, meaning their already-compromised immune systems get compromised even further. Why doesn't Medicare already cover it? Because Medicare doesn't cover everything under the sun, and that's why we keep maintaining it. Why not make all health insurers cover it? Because then the winged monkeys of Congress will squeal BIG GUMMINT TYRANNYZ!!!! -- and also because if Medicare does it, private insurers will eventually do it anyway, which the bill's lead sponsor, actual moderate Republican Dave Reichert (WA-8), may have calculated. So Breast Cancer Action helps you tell your House Rep to support lymphedema treatment.
Meanwhile, you may have heard that for-profit college corporation Corinthian Colleges closed its remaining campuses last week (dealing Sen. Rubio a PR black eye in the process, which is a plus). Corinthian apparently couldn't withstand the pressure of quite-deserved government action against them for telling students they were providing a good education leading to good jobs, and instead trapping them in a cycle of debt for degrees of little worth, all while leeching money from taxpayers. But the Department of Education actually intends to leave those Corinthian students on the hook for those loans, so Americans for Financial Reform helps you tell the DOE to help provide relief to those students. I know right-wingers are asking: aren't these kids dumb for taking out those loans? Setting aside all of us, as youths, did dumb stuff that sounded too good to be true, these students were lied to by the people loaning them money. Too many people rush to blame the victim for getting into a mess, while conveniently forgetting to blame the folks who used the victim for their own ends.
Finally, H.R. 1534/S. 831, the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act (or SANE Act), would target specific nuclear-related defense expenditures that our government, despite being led by the supposedly weak-on-defense President Barack Obama, has actually been escalating. But zeroing out funds for long-range bombers and ICBMs, while restricting funds for certain other weapons systems, would save us (yes, us, since our government spends money on weapons with taxes, and we're taxpayers) $10 billion annually over the next decade, and if that doesn't sound like a lot of money in the context of a $4 trillion budget, remember that we could be doing a lot of good with $10 billion -- I mean creating-jobs good, like with infrastructure repair and development projects, or stimulate-the-economy good, like with rescinding last year's food stamp cuts. Plus, it's not like we don't have enough nukes or nuke delivery devices already -- still enough to blow up the world 200 times over, which fact might deter nations from declaring war on us, but which fact doesn't seem to discourage terrorists from attacking us, either at home or overseas. Hence Peace Action West helps you tell Congress to restrain nuclear spending by passing the SANE Act.
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