We are just a week away from Election Day 2026. As always on Invisible Pain, I am encouraging you to make yourself visible, but this time through your vote. We covered a lot of material last month about advocacy and ways to make yourself heard during Pain Awareness Month, including support for the Advancing Research for Chronic Pain Act. Another crucial bill to support chronic pain patients currently in Congress is the Protecting Patients from Automated Denials Act. The Spondylitis Association of America (SAA), the primary U.S. organization supporting those enduring chronic pain from spondyloarthritis, is advocating for this bill due to how detrimental AI has been for those individuals on Medicare Advantage plans. As SAA explains on their website, Medicare Advantage plans currently use AI algorithms to automatically deny coverage for expensive arthritic treatments, including biologic medications, spinal MRIs, and physical therapy, forcing patients to go through an oftentimes weekslong appeals process to obtain treatment. Meanwhile, as these patients wait for treatment approvals, their conditions can worsen with painful flares and irreversible joint damage. The Protecting Patients from Automated Denials Act will help protect Medicare Advantage patients by doing the following:
- Ban plans from using computer algorithms to determine eligibility for treatment. A qualified doctor must review the patient’s file and legally take responsibility for treatment denials.
- Restrict automated systems from abruptly cutting off high-cost medications like biologics that prevent diseases like spondyloarthritis from getting worse.
- Require insurance companies to allow a patient’s rheumatologist to speak directly with a reviewing doctor to resolve a potential denial.
If you or someone you care for is on a Medicare Advantage plan, we need more members in Congress that will stand up to companies that abuse AI and deny people crucial, quality-of-life treatment therapies. So, I implore you to vote, but also to vote for candidates that care for people and patients, not companies and their bottom line.
Another important chronic pain bill that was introduced in October of 2025 and still has not been brought to the floor for a vote is the Relief of Chronic Pain Act of 2025. The purpose of this bill is to reduce cost-sharing and prohibit the imposition of certain utilization requirements under the Medicare prescription drug benefit for certain non-opioid drugs for chronic pain management. The bill would require these drugs to be covered without a deductible, offering quicker and easier access, and to place these drugs on the lowest cost-sharing tier to reduce the burden of Medicare members to pay for medications that significantly reduce pain for chronic conditions.
For some Medicare and arthritic patients like my mother, they do not always have the income, savings, or retirement money that a lot of Americans do. They often must make tough decisions to pay for medications that reduce pain and increase quality of life versus paying rent or other medical bills. While both of the Medicare bills discussed above may need congressional support to be passed and a President to sign them into law, I do not believe it is a political or partisan statement to say that they will correct wrongs within our healthcare system that should be obvious and automatic rights of citizens that suffer from chronic pain. So please vote this November. And vote to support patients and their rights to quality, cost-efficient, and life-saving healthcare.
Image Credit: Zach Wear on Unsplash
Copyright 2026 David Lister. All Rights Reserved.
