November may not be multiple sclerosis awareness month, but there are still a number of events to keep MS in mind during November.
Election Day – A huge day for MS patients. Given the battles over healthcare costs and legislation, it’s important for MS patients to make their voices heard. Both of the candidates have family connections to MS – Ann Romney and Michelle Obama’s father – so both are aware of the daily impact of MS on the lives of families.
Gratitude Challenges – There are some challenges set up to encourage people to truly give thanks during November by writing daily about gratitude. One challenge is from the Creative Idea Gal.
NaNoWriMo – For many authors, November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel, start to finish, during the month of November. I’ve tried this one a few times, and I did get over 20,000 words once. There have been a number of novels published from this challenge, such as Water for Elephants.
NaBloPoMo – Bloggers have joined the writing challenge, with National Blog Posting Month. I found out about it too late to join the blogroll, but bloggers can still join the party.
Today’s prompt asks what would be your first act as president. My answer could be considered selfish by some, and a critical issue to others. I would focus on healthcare insurance, specifically the pre-existing condition barrier and lifetime limits. Yes, I know there’s a huge healthcare dialogue going on, but I would focus on these two issues first. During a NMSS teleconference, the speaker said the average annual healthcare costs for someone with MS are $70,000. How many families can afford to pay $70,000 for health-related costs? And that’s just the average. Add the possibility of losing insurance coverage, and trying to find affordable healthcare, and dealing with any lapse of coverage impacting insurability, and you are dealing with a huge mountain. Dealing with MS health issues is bad enough without a price tag hanging over your head.