Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / OneLegUpAlex Recaps The DDNC Public Policy Forum 2025 : Ease Frustration Through Legislation
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Darren Well. I was on the hill.
- 0:07Speaker 1: If you didn't follow already at Alex g NYC one
- 0:10Speaker 1: or one leg Up. Alex. I've been on the hill
- 0:13Speaker 1: the last couple of days advocating for those with digestive diseases,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and I'm so excited and proud of the efforts of
- 0:22Speaker 1: the d DNC Digestive Disease National Coalition. Thank you Alejandra,
- 0:27Speaker 1: thank you Dane, thank you Josh. Fine, but really welcoming
- 0:32Speaker 1: all of us to advocate and to be honest adgacy
- 0:36Speaker 1: and lobbying. That wasn't my space, but now, I mean,
- 0:42Speaker 1: I've paid over twelve hundred dollars for an endoscopy, I
- 0:46Speaker 1: still get my medical supplies out of pocket. And I
- 0:50Speaker 1: was really informed by the last couple of days meeting
- 0:55Speaker 1: with different staffers of Senator Schumer's office, in Corey Booker's
- 0:59Speaker 1: office and jeff Van and Drew Reped Jeffer and Drew's office,
- 1:02Speaker 1: as well as our own congresswoman in Queen's Grace Mang's office.
- 1:07Speaker 1: All of these sessions and advocating for the different bills
- 1:12Speaker 1: has fired me up to say, yes, I want to
- 1:14Speaker 1: see these bills on the floor of the Congress, reintroduced
- 1:18Speaker 1: or introduced and sponsored. Because, as I've said over and
- 1:25Speaker 1: over and over and over again, people with disabilities, people
- 1:31Speaker 1: who are athletes, people who are movie stars, politicians, everyday people.
- 1:37Speaker 1: What do we all have in common. We're all tax payers.
- 1:43Speaker 1: So it's no wonder why groups go down to DC
- 1:46Speaker 1: every year. In fact, d DNC does it every spring
- 1:49Speaker 1: and fall, by the way, to say, hey, can you
- 1:52Speaker 1: get this pass for us? We need this past to
- 1:55Speaker 1: protect those with disabilities, because that is what they're supposed
- 2:00Speaker 1: to do. That is their job, that is what we're
- 2:02Speaker 1: paying them to do, is pass laws that help the
- 2:07Speaker 1: American people. So I want to give a shout out
- 2:12Speaker 1: to Ashley and Schuyler and Bryce and Ben sorry Dan
- 2:19Speaker 1: Morgan who was advocating for more research into pancreatitis. And
- 2:25Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, tell you what, and of course
- 2:27Speaker 1: our team leader, Janine Glieber, who is the UOAA United
- 2:31Speaker 1: Owsome Association of America advocacy manager. You'll hear from her
- 2:36Speaker 1: in a little bit here, But i'll tell you what.
- 2:39Speaker 1: All this research and I've often referred to government shutdown
- 2:43Speaker 1: stop gap spending bills as kicking the can down the road. Boy,
- 2:46Speaker 1: oh boy, was my eye opened yesterday because when they
- 2:50Speaker 1: signed these bills into law, even the stop gaps to
- 2:55Speaker 1: avert the government shutdown. Oh my god. They keep resources
- 3:04Speaker 1: alive for people with disabilities. And so I don't always
- 3:10Speaker 1: box myself into this one community because I believe disabled
- 3:14Speaker 1: community should also look broader and bigger and how we
- 3:18Speaker 1: can all be benefiting as Americans because disabled people are
- 3:24Speaker 1: Americans just like everybody else. They just need a little
- 3:27Speaker 1: more help. But but what I found out this weekend
- 3:36Speaker 1: was that there are things that can be passed and
- 3:39Speaker 1: championed that you may not have ever heard before. I
- 3:43Speaker 1: certainly did not until this weekend down in DC. I'm
- 3:47Speaker 1: so glad my mom and I were there to tell
- 3:49Speaker 1: our stories of what it was like the last thirty
- 3:51Speaker 1: three years having an ostomy, having digestive issue. And because
- 4:02Speaker 1: I'm here thirty three years later, I want to make
- 4:04Speaker 1: sure doctors and patience have that relationship without insurance interference.
- 4:14Speaker 1: I want to make sure patients can get the best
- 4:17Speaker 1: their care they can get, just so they can thrive
- 4:20Speaker 1: and live and live a long life like I've been
- 4:22Speaker 1: able to do thanks to the great work of the
- 4:24Speaker 1: doctors who just did what they had to and didn't
- 4:27Speaker 1: worry about what insurance was going to cover what. And
- 4:36Speaker 1: I also believe in that same vein the doctors should
- 4:39Speaker 1: be able to do their work without the insurance interference.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Now as I mean a CEO should be shot dead
- 4:46Speaker 1: in the middle of Manhattan, absolutely not. We do things
- 4:50Speaker 1: through legislation. We even do things through justices. To remember,
- 4:54Speaker 1: before that shooting happened, the guy was about to be
- 4:57Speaker 1: brought down by the DOJ. He should just let that happen, Luigi.
- 5:03Speaker 1: But here's another way we can voice our frustration through
- 5:07Speaker 1: pushing legislation. Not killing anybody, but pushing legislation is the
- 5:13Speaker 1: best way to voice our frustration. So here are the
- 5:19Speaker 1: four bills I want you to know about if you
- 5:22Speaker 1: don't already. There are four main bills, the DDNC in
- 5:27Speaker 1: alliance with the UAA and the Olay Foundation and a
- 5:34Speaker 1: couple of other organizations. There's fifty two organizations that collaborated
- 5:37Speaker 1: to make this coalition, by the way, But the four
- 5:44Speaker 1: acts I want you to keep an eye on and
- 5:46Speaker 1: tell your congress people about on the national level is
- 5:51Speaker 1: the Safe Step Act to Help Copays, Act to Treat
- 5:54Speaker 1: and Reduce Obesity Act, the Food Labeling Modernization Act, let
- 5:59Speaker 1: me tell you about that. So there's a moment called
- 6:02Speaker 1: Make America Healthy Again, led by RFK Junior, who is
- 6:04Speaker 1: now our JJI secretary. There were three times in this
- 6:08Speaker 1: forum that the AJHS of today, the Trump AJHS, was
- 6:14Speaker 1: praised for this food labeling modernization, for getting rid of
- 6:17Speaker 1: the red dye. Three, there was actually praise for the
- 6:21Speaker 1: way they can help out those with livered issues and
- 6:25Speaker 1: kidney issues. I mean, this is sort of a coalition
- 6:28Speaker 1: that probably is certainly nonpartisan. They met with both sides,
- 6:35Speaker 1: but probably wants the Republicans to do more. Yet here
- 6:37Speaker 1: they are three organizations within this coalition that said, hey,
- 6:41Speaker 1: the Trump administration is doing right by us. So they're
- 6:45Speaker 1: doing right by some in the health field. We just
- 6:47Speaker 1: want them to do right by all in the health field.
- 6:50Speaker 1: And then the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act, which I will
- 6:53Speaker 1: have h She's a great lady, Lisa Metzger, who was
- 6:57Speaker 1: actually the chair of the event of the forum this weekend,
- 7:03Speaker 1: to talk about what that is because of someone who's
- 7:07Speaker 1: had nutritionness over the years, and again something that we've
- 7:11Speaker 1: been lucky to afford a lot of my medical health
- 7:13Speaker 1: care we've been lucky to afford we've been lucky to
- 7:15Speaker 1: get pavement plans. But when you don't have that option,
- 7:19Speaker 1: when you don't have even a supportive family, when you
- 7:22Speaker 1: don't have the resources, these acts can save lives. They can.
- 7:34Speaker 1: So let's go through all of them. Because the DNC
- 7:36Speaker 1: did run these down for me in a packet which
- 7:44Speaker 1: was given out to everybody at the coalition this past weekend,
- 7:51Speaker 1: and I want to run down exactly why these different
- 7:56Speaker 1: bills matter. And again, as taxpayers, we want to make
- 8:10Speaker 1: sure that these bills are past and that we're making
- 8:17Speaker 1: sure they're passed to just grow. So here they are.
- 8:23Speaker 1: The Help Copays Act requires health plans to count the
- 8:26Speaker 1: value of copay assistance toward patient cost sharingness requirements. As
- 8:31Speaker 1: I understand it, Remember this was the first time really
- 8:34Speaker 1: lobbying advocating on the hill, leaning into this whole thing
- 8:38Speaker 1: to help those digestive diseases and healthcare access for all
- 8:45Speaker 1: have one leg up for all of us. They always say,
- 8:49Speaker 1: make the government work for you because you pay them. Well,
- 8:54Speaker 1: as I understand the Copays Act, when require health plans
- 8:57Speaker 1: to count the value of copay assistance to where patient
- 8:59Speaker 1: cost sharing requirements and to those who are working with
- 9:03Speaker 1: disabilities and making under forty thousand dollars, to make sure
- 9:09Speaker 1: the copays are affordable for those making under forty thousand,
- 9:14Speaker 1: Why shouldn't we pass the Bipartisan Help Copays Act. Then
- 9:21Speaker 1: here's I mean, there were so many, but here's the
- 9:37Speaker 1: others that were important to me. The Safe Step Act,
- 9:48Speaker 1: the Byparson Bill would establish common sense guidelines for appealing
- 9:52Speaker 1: step therapy programs. I'm sorry, first step bare of the
- 10:02Speaker 1: protocols under ers A Health Plans d d n C.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Digestive Disease National Coalition urges legislators to pass the Safe
- 10:10Speaker 1: Step Act in this Congress one hundred and nineteenth. Step
- 10:15Speaker 1: therapy is one of the many utilization management or cost
- 10:18Speaker 1: shifting tactics employed by third party to shift costs away
- 10:22Speaker 1: from themselves and to the patient, which delays appropriate treatment,
- 10:26Speaker 1: increases patient out of pocket costs, and drives a wedge
- 10:29Speaker 1: between the patient and their health care providers thatcsion making.
- 10:43Speaker 1: And there's all these white papers which were given to us,
- 10:48Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have to keep reading up on these
- 10:52Speaker 1: as we go along here. But if you don't want
- 10:58Speaker 1: the insurance company to stand in the way of your healthcare.
- 11:01Speaker 1: Call your congress person and tell them pass the State
- 11:06Speaker 1: Step Act. Pass it today. It would be basically health
- 11:16Speaker 1: plans controlling spending on patients medications. While step therapy can
- 11:21Speaker 1: be an important tool, then the has negative impacts on patients,
- 11:25Speaker 1: including delayed access to the most effective treatment. So here
- 11:30Speaker 1: we are the insurance steps in interferes between the doctor
- 11:33Speaker 1: patient relationship, and this bill would provide an exception process
- 11:43Speaker 1: for any medication step therapy protocol and outlines five exceptions
- 11:50Speaker 1: to fail first protocols. Patient already try and fail on
- 11:53Speaker 1: first required drug. Delayed triament will cause irreversible consequences. Require
- 11:58Speaker 1: drug will cause harm to the pay We shouldn't require drug,
- 12:05Speaker 1: and requires a group health plan to respond to an
- 12:09Speaker 1: exemption request within seventy two hours in all circumstances, and
- 12:12Speaker 1: twenty four hours if the patient's life is at risk.
- 12:22Speaker 1: So we don't want delays in people not only of
- 12:25Speaker 1: digestive diseasees, but of any complication. They shouldn't have to
- 12:30Speaker 1: deal with delays at all. They shouldn't have to deal
- 12:32Speaker 1: with insurance interference at all. So, as I said earlier,
- 12:37Speaker 1: the best way to voice frustration is to push legislation.
- 12:42Speaker 1: It's almost like taxation without representation. You can piggyback that
- 12:47Speaker 1: with Hey, if you're frustrated with how things are going,
- 12:53Speaker 1: then push to be have things in coded adopted, constitutional
- 13:01Speaker 1: amendments amended. But these bills should be able to be
- 13:07Speaker 1: passed for the sake of those with these digestive issues.
- 13:13Speaker 1: I hate the word disease, but digestive diseases, digestive issues
- 13:18Speaker 1: and the like. But the Medical Nutrition Therapy Act, as
- 13:25Speaker 1: it was described in our meetings with again a sentimentorial
- 13:29Speaker 1: Leader Chuck Schumer's office, Senator Booker's office. Rep. Jennifer and
- 13:35Speaker 1: Drew's office, Grace Meng's office, is that services to make
- 13:47Speaker 1: sure you're getting the right nutrition while whether with a
- 13:50Speaker 1: feeding tube or having these digestive issues can be preferred
- 13:53Speaker 1: by as physician assistant, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist or
- 14:00Speaker 1: eusource are clinical psychologists. We need to make sure most
- 14:06Speaker 1: of all that patients have the right access to all
- 14:09Speaker 1: of these care. All of this care they call it
- 14:20Speaker 1: parental nutrition, access and reimbursement issues. And so what they're
- 14:40Speaker 1: saying here is that the American Society for Parenturial and
- 14:47Speaker 1: Enteral Nutrition when those issues arise and imburse reimbursements to
- 15:02Speaker 1: those who provide the care are limited. There's insecure that
- 15:07Speaker 1: negative impacts patients and healthcare providers and leads to adverse events,
- 15:11Speaker 1: including death in patients receiving this parental nutrition. And it
- 15:18Speaker 1: also impacts the cost the access to much needed feeding tubes.
- 15:25Speaker 1: And I guess the connectors from the tube to the
- 15:31Speaker 1: device that's in the stomach already. And I'm gonna have
- 15:38Speaker 1: experts in all of these as we go along, because
- 15:41Speaker 1: we have until March fourteenth. But then we gotta think
- 15:44Speaker 1: of the bigger conversation. We can kick the can down,
- 15:46Speaker 1: we can keep the funding as is, which will be great,
- 15:50Speaker 1: but what can we do more than just a stopgap measure. Yes,
- 15:54Speaker 1: the stopgap measure is so important to keep everything going,
- 15:57Speaker 1: but let's take it one step for Let's have one
- 16:00Speaker 1: leg up beyond just stop gap measures and really push
- 16:07Speaker 1: for these measures, real measures to be passed. And did
- 16:19Speaker 1: you know, by the way, when it comes to oustomes
- 16:24Speaker 1: and when I whipped out the osteme bag that I
- 16:26Speaker 1: have just as a show, is a supply that's needed.
- 16:33Speaker 1: Because there's also a thing called medical switching where they
- 16:37Speaker 1: literally will tell you, oh, no, you don't want those supplies.
- 16:39Speaker 1: We can accommodate those supplies. You need these ones. Imagine
- 16:43Speaker 1: losing your losing your ability to go to the bathroom,
- 16:50Speaker 1: and then after having this trauma to the body of
- 16:53Speaker 1: a soma installed, you then can't get the supplies you're
- 16:56Speaker 1: already recommended, and you're just starting out with this. I
- 17:00Speaker 1: have to believe, you know, thank God, I was born
- 17:02Speaker 1: with this omni after six hours old. But I have
- 17:08Speaker 1: to believe that those traumas, those traumas are so overwhelming
- 17:24Speaker 1: that then they say, oh well, the insurance company say, well,
- 17:27Speaker 1: you can't get anything. We have to shift to another
- 17:34Speaker 1: supply that's gonna be even more trauma and more stress.
- 17:39Speaker 1: So shouldn't the government work for us by enabling less
- 17:42Speaker 1: stress and passing resolutions that will bring less stress to
- 17:46Speaker 1: the disabled community and not more. Well, I'm gonna say
- 17:52Speaker 1: one more time, we must voice our frustrations by pushing
- 17:57Speaker 1: for legislation. And that's how we have one leg up
- 18:02Speaker 1: for those but not only digestive diseases, but all kinds
- 18:04Speaker 1: of conditions. And if we have that inroad to Congress,
- 18:12Speaker 1: maybe we should keep making more trips down to DC.
- 18:14Speaker 1: And keep advocating for more, because if you're not as
- 18:19Speaker 1: fortunate to have that resource Europe, you know what's creek,
- 18:26Speaker 1: and we shouldn't have that. That shouldn't be American's divisibilities
- 18:33Speaker 1: should really come first in the whole line of care,
- 18:38Speaker 1: not an afterthought. That's why we're voicing our frustrations by
- 18:48Speaker 1: pushing for legislation. And we'll hear from experts across the
- 18:52Speaker 1: board and those who have had stories of pancreatitis, ostomes
- 18:57Speaker 1: and more throughout the week and hopefully before March fourteenth,
- 19:02Speaker 1: so we can really hit home the point why this
- 19:05Speaker 1: Congress needs to act now. And one person that did
- 19:08Speaker 1: that really well, I thought, was our advocacy manner manager,
- 19:12Speaker 1: Janine Gliba, who's the nicest gal possible, by the way,
- 19:16Speaker 1: nicest gal, nicest lady. And she told me this outside
- 19:25Speaker 1: of the capital, amidst this publicly public policy forum. Well,
- 19:31Speaker 1: if you ask me when I signed up to be
- 19:33Speaker 1: part of the UOAA unit Oscome Association of America that
- 19:37Speaker 1: i'd be talking with our advocate leader, Janine Gliba, I mean,
- 19:41Speaker 1: I who knew this would be happening, But I'm so
- 19:43Speaker 1: glad to finally meet you.
- 19:44Speaker 2: I'm very happy to be here and so happy you
- 19:46Speaker 2: came down to detail.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I was so focused on your presentation because you're representing
- 19:51Speaker 1: how many millions of Americans have OSMED?
- 19:53Speaker 2: How much about about one million having OSME or consonant diverging.
- 19:57Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's pretty big. Were an underserved pa popular absolutely.
- 20:01Speaker 1: Tell us why this is so important.
- 20:02Speaker 2: To you though, Oh my goodness. Like I said, I
- 20:05Speaker 2: just think it's a crime that so many people suffer
- 20:08Speaker 2: and what they have to go back bad enough they
- 20:10Speaker 2: came to this situation to need this type of surgery,
- 20:13Speaker 2: but then not to have their supplies covered, or to
- 20:16Speaker 2: receive poor care you know when they're in the hospital,
- 20:20Speaker 2: or not have access to their ostuin nurse. So there's
- 20:23Speaker 2: just so many things that we need to face.
- 20:25Speaker 1: And you know, you'll talk about the supply switching thing,
- 20:27Speaker 1: and it blows my mind because the doctors do give
- 20:30Speaker 1: us one thing and the insurance tells us something else.
- 20:32Speaker 1: Is that what goes on?
- 20:33Speaker 2: Sometimes it does. Sometimes your insurance might restrict you to
- 20:35Speaker 2: a certain brand, or they might restrict you to a
- 20:38Speaker 2: certain supplier, and then that supply might not cover the
- 20:41Speaker 2: supplies that you need. And some people have you know,
- 20:45Speaker 2: their patting system. It fits their particular needs. And you know,
- 20:49Speaker 2: some people have allergies and they can't use every type
- 20:52Speaker 2: of They're not one size fits.
- 20:54Speaker 1: Of Jeanine, I run this adapting podcast. So for those
- 20:57Speaker 1: who may be adapting to anostomy, I've had it a
- 20:59Speaker 1: thirty three years of whole lie. Those who are adapting
- 21:01Speaker 1: it today, what's your message.
- 21:02Speaker 2: To them that you can have a wonderful quality of life,
- 21:06Speaker 2: that there are people out there to support you, that
- 21:10Speaker 2: you it will be like again walking down the street.
- 21:14Speaker 2: You never know someone has an oscome.
- 21:16Speaker 1: And you've been doing this for a while now.
- 21:17Speaker 2: I've been with u OAA for almost nine years.
- 21:19Speaker 1: So what's your approach when you go to see all
- 21:21Speaker 1: these different senators and congressmen and what what advice would
- 21:25Speaker 1: you have when someone goes to advocate with these people.
- 21:27Speaker 2: For me, I think the number one thing is that
- 21:29Speaker 2: education because most people don't even know what an ostemy is,
- 21:32Speaker 2: so I just take it as an opportunity to educate them,
- 21:35Speaker 2: you know, on what an ostery is, raise awareness about
- 21:38Speaker 2: the issues that affect our patient population. And again, we
- 21:42Speaker 2: support many different people. You know, it's all different reasons
- 21:46Speaker 2: why someone might eat an oster be. So for example,
- 21:49Speaker 2: the Safe Step Aact. We you know it doesn't it's
- 21:51Speaker 2: not necessarily because of ostome. But someone with IBD might
- 21:55Speaker 2: have been sure they might have their ostery because of
- 21:57Speaker 2: their IVD.
- 21:58Speaker 1: And I noticed the diagnosis are always coming late for
- 22:01Speaker 1: some people. How do we fix that that?
- 22:04Speaker 2: I don't know, that's probably.
- 22:06Speaker 1: A doctoral question. Yeah all right, it's amazing this time
- 22:09Speaker 1: because just Friday was was Rare Disease Day. I mean,
- 22:12Speaker 1: what timing for this conference, right?
- 22:13Speaker 2: Yeah, well we have at the same time every year,
- 22:15Speaker 2: the first Sunday and Monday in March. So it did good,
- 22:19Speaker 2: but especially with everything going on right now.
- 22:21Speaker 1: One last thing I saw one of the emails, not
- 22:23Speaker 1: every state recognized awesome awareness. Has that change? Did everybody
- 22:26Speaker 1: recognize it eventually? Or is that like that?
- 22:28Speaker 2: But we depend on our advocates because again you heard
- 22:31Speaker 2: that today too. They want your elected offishers want to
- 22:34Speaker 2: hear from their constituents. So we need constituents in every
- 22:37Speaker 2: state to advocate to have us to the Awareness Day recognized.
- 22:41Speaker 1: And I follow it on my podcast every year. So
- 22:43Speaker 1: thanks for put Yeah.
- 22:45Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well we should do a podcast.
- 22:47Speaker 1: We will awareness that once all this is craziness over,
- 22:51Speaker 1: We'll do it long form podcast.
- 22:52Speaker 2: We also have a national conference there. I don't know
- 22:55Speaker 2: if you know about it.
- 22:55Speaker 1: I did not, but we should find out maybe that
- 22:58Speaker 1: later and I see you later. But yeah, thank thank
- 23:01Speaker 1: you very so much, God bless what a sweet lady did.
- 23:06Speaker 1: He give me a certificate for being part of it.
- 23:08Speaker 1: And I want to thank Mom again for checking down
- 23:11Speaker 1: to DC with needed to share our story because I
- 23:13Speaker 1: feel like if I'm gonna have this platform of having
- 23:17Speaker 1: one leg up, well, going to the front line and
- 23:20Speaker 1: making sure people can have one leg up is major
- 23:33Speaker 1: and much needed. So let's work together to voice frustration
- 23:39Speaker 1: by pushing legislation and I would even say ease frustration
- 23:48Speaker 1: through legislation on the One Leg Up Network