The following letter was sent to political representatives. When questioned about their lack of response, they answered that they only answer if it is important. Hmmm. I wonder what they define as important?

Baarack Obama US Senator 1013 E 53Rd St Chicago, IL 60637

Rosemary Mulligan IL State Representative 33RD Legislative District 932 Lee St Des Plaines, IL 60016

Carolyn Krause IL State Representative 33RD Legislative District 200 E. Evergreen Ave Mt Prospect, IL. 60056

Richard Durbin US Senator 108th Congress 230 S. Dearborn Chicago, IL 60604

January 25, 2006

Dear Senator Durbin:

Medicare Part D                   Reality or Fiction                   Senior Citizen Sellout.

The Senior Citizens were promised that this new prescription program was going to be the answer to our prayers. We were going to finally have some help to cut the cost of our medicines. Most of the Senior Citizens can't afford their medicines because they are on a fixed income. How could you have signed Medicare Part D the way it was written?

Please tell me how Senior Citizens are going to be compensated for medicines that this program doesn't cover? The reason I am asking there is an MS medicine named 4 Aminopyridine. This medicine has been given to MS patients over twenty years. It is compounded. Only three pharmaceutical companies produce this medicine. One of the companies is College Pharmacy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. There are two others and if needed we will find out who they are and their locations. I have been on this medicine ten years. Enclosed you will find a copy of the side effects received from College Pharmacy. Dr. Howard Lipton, Northwestern Medical Center, Dr. Dusan Stefoski, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital have been giving this medicine to their patients in a study for twenty years. There are other doctors in Illinois and other states researching this same medicine. If needed we will get this information for you also. In researching further it will be another two to three years before the FDA rules on this medicine.

Please let us know why the FDA needs so many studies if the medicine has been given to patients for twenty years. Twenty years is long enough to know if the patient's condition is stable. The 4 AMINOPYRIDINE has less life threatening side effects than most of the drugs the FDA has approved. What about the drugs the FDA approved and had to be taken off the market. There has been a few this past year. These were very expensive drugs. Every time you take one of these expense drugs the list of the side effects is unbelievable. Were these put on the market before being studied for twenty years? Why isn't the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies being investigated? We don't investigate the FDA, are they hands off?

People with MS are being discriminated against because 4 Aminopyridine is not being covered by the MEDICARE Drug Program. The Unified Voice for Disabled Americans WOULD LIKE your help to get the 4 Aminopyridine drug approved immediately. There are enough of us on it to warrant the FDA approval as of yesterday. DISCRIMINATION comes in when we still have to pay for it ourselves and we have to take it survive.

We need your help in approving this drug. It has been studied long enough.

Cordially,

Unified Voice for Disabled America



Rosemarie A. Botthof                 Linda Stearns