For: Elaine Núñez McConnell (*)
The General Assembly of Virginia will meet soon in Richmond, and his first priority will be to eliminate the deficit for almost 3.000 million dollars in the state budget.
As ex-vice-president of the Supervisors' Meeting of Fairfax's county, for proper experience that is necessary to take difficult decisions to eliminate the deficit presupuestal. But it worries me that again it is considered to eliminate the Medicaid programs for the specializing treatment of patients who take antidepressing and antipsychotic medicines.
In accordance with the plan of Virginia, the doctors can prescribe a medicine for the treatment of an illness only of the "approved" list of medicines of Medicaid. The specializing programs or “carve-outs“ they allow the doctors to prescribe the best possible medicine for certain illnesses, like the cancer, VIH and cardiovascular and mental diseases, independently if they are in the approved list of medicines of Medicaid or not. This is allowed because certain illnesses are so serious and complex that they need treatment with specializing medicines.
This is one of the reasons for which the General Assembly pushed the elimination of specializing programs back last year. In case of antidepressing and antipsychotic, they can determine if a person can work in the society or simply it cannot do it due to a mental illness.
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After having been a member for eight years of the State Meeting of the Governor on Mental health, Mental deficiency, Drug addiction and Alcoholism, and for my experience in a school for students with special needs, I know how important the fact is that the persons who suffer from depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses take his medicines of regular form. I know that it is difficult to find effective medicines and, when they it are, it is not good to change medicine unnecessarily.
The ramifications of eliminating the antidepressing and antipsychotic medicines of the list of medicines for specializing treatment and forcing the patients who suffer from mental illnesses to take another cheaper medicine are too serious. There is putting itself in danger the life of these persons and his aptitude to be productive members of our society and of the state in order to save little more than $ 3 millions in a budget that overcomes 70.000 million dollars.
I urge the governor and the General Assembly to which they do not do changes in the programs for specializing treatment when they look for ways of achieving the budgetary balance. These were created for a good motive: to provide the best medicines to fight certain illnesses.
(*) He Was a member of the Supervisors' Meeting of Fairfax's county for 24 years and of the State Meeting of Mental health, Mental deficiency, Drug addiction and Alcoholism for eight years. She is a founder and proprietress of Accotink Academy.
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