If you wish to write, call or speak at the hearing without causing our Senators and Representative to want to stick their fingers in their ears, here are a few suggested Do’s and Don’ts:
- DO write your speech in advance and time your self speaking in front of a mirror to make sure you do not exceed the 3 minute limit.
- DO tell your story (briefly) about Lyme but remember that the point of the public hearing is not just to tell the Committee about your suffering. You should focus the majority of your time on explaining why this bill would make things better for you and for other Texans suffering from tick-borne disease.
- DON’T go into a lot of details about the medical science of Lyme, the various ways to treat it, the differences between the IDSA/ILADS protocols, etc. Most of the committee members have no medical background and you will only bore/alienate them if you talk in complicated terms about the disease.
- DON’T go into a lot of detail about the IDSA vs. ILADS debate. Mention it if you’d want, explain that the patients lose when only one standard of care is accepted, and move on. We do not want to draw too much attention to the debate about the medical science, lest the IDSA feel compelled to lobby against this bill. (So far, as far as we can tell, this bill is NOT on their radar – but that could change).
- DO mention that you believe the bill will increase access to quality care for Lyme victims because it will allow more doctors to treat without fear of being investigated and disciplined by the TMB or TNB.
- DO thank the Texas Medical Association for their help with this bill.
- DON’T DON’T DON’T go into what I call the “black helicopter” conspiracy theories about Plum Island, bioweapons, intentional government infections, etc. You (and our bill) will be dismissed as wingnuts.
- DON’T talk about larger reform of the Texas Medical Board as has been proposed by House Bill 1013 which has been pushed by Dr. Hotze out of Houston. That bill is very controversial and we have nothing to gain by hitching our horse to that wagon.
- DON’T beat up too much on the TMB for how they’ve treated docs in the past. We all know they have been bullies, but their Executive Director, Mari Robinson, will be there in the room and will be asked to speak and our preliminary intel indicates that she is not opposed to this bill. So if we make too much noise about how evil the TMB is, then it will put her/them on the defensive and she/they may work against our bill. If you want to talk about TMB oppression (it’s a valid topic), try to qualify it by saying “in the past, the TMB did X, Y and Z” or “previous TMB administrations were very hard on Lyme docs” so that it looks like we’re addressing her predecessor’s actions.
