The Political is Personal: Examining the Role of Personal Connection to a Disease as an Access Point for Singledisease Interest Groups
“Comparing the advocacy efforts of the MS Society and ME Action Network demonstrates that single-disease advocacy groups gain access to representatives when they target those Congressional representatives with a personal interest in the disease.”
“Approximately 133 million Americans live with a chronic illness…. I am one of those Americans and live with a disease that very few doctors specialize in and for which few treatments options exist, at least in part because of lack of funding. This experience led me to ask what lobbying strategies are effective specifically for interest groups that represent patients with a single disease.”
“A single-disease interest group that finds legislators who have a personal connection to a disease is helping to create a shift in which suffering or observing a family member suffer from a disease changes from an unfortunate occurrence to an identity analogous to gender, race, religion, or any number of other characteristics that help shape one’s political identity.”
by Lindsey Mills
