Once again the National Psoriasis Foundation and it’s team of advocacy advocates will be heading to Washington DC to address the issues facing the psoriasis community. We will be talking to congressional leaders about our proposed Appropriations bill and Step Therapy bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2077

These bills if passed into law will not only help the psoriasis community, but will also help other auto-immune disease communities. The one bill that addresses “step therapy” just makes common sense. The bill will simply fill prescriptions as written by your doctor. You will no longer need to “fail first” a less safer, less effective, less expensive medication before the original one is dispensed. Here is a copy of the letter that I sent to my congressman;

NPF template;

“As a constituent affected by psoriatic disease, I am writing to urge your support for a FY 2019 appropriations funding request to expand research in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

The requested FY 2019 funding will build upon the foundation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) public health agenda on psoriatic disease. Specifically, the $1 million request would support research on the connection between psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and other chronic conditions. As psoriatic disease is one of the most prevalent autoimmune conditions in the country, it is critical that we invest in public health research to better understand the disease, its connection to other chronic conditions, and interventions to improve health, well-being, and quality of life.

Congresswoman Wasserman Shultz (D-FL) and Congressman Costello (R-PA) circulated a Dear Colleague letter earlier this week and I respectfully urge you to add your name to the letter. This modest funding will go a long way to advance care for the more than 20,000 psoriatic disease patients in your district and the 8 million affected nationally.”

Please contact Kaitlyn Lane in Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s office at kaitlyn.lane@mail.house.gov or Elle Ciapciak in Rep. Costello’s office at elle.ciapciak@mail.house.gov if you have any questions or need any additional information.

Sign On Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepEKCKIqgCqfns1Ab-FErIRWKuthW9QRUEzS5JvG1HkZIgkA/viewform

I hope you will consider supporting the Dear Colleague and the funding request. I look forward to hearing from you about this request.

Your voice is important to our community. Your voice will fund critical research needed for better treatments and/or a cure. Your involvement will improve the SOP’s by which prescriptions are filled. Let’s stop the common practice of undermining our highly educated doctors and fill the prescriptions as written. Makes sense!

Contact the NPF and get involved http://www.psoriasis.org

Written by Todd Bello in collaboration with the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Ambassador to the National Psoriasis Foundation

Founder of Overcoming Psoriasis http://www.Facebook.com/psowhat

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