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| PRESIDENT CLINTON URGES SENATE REPUBLICANS TO PASS A REAL PATIENTS? |
| BILL OF RIGHTS WITHOUT DELAY |
| Launches Patients? Rights Tour 2000 |
| September 14, 2000 |
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Today, President Clinton will call on the Senate Republican leadership to
bring the bipartisan Norwood-Dingell Patients? Bill of Rights legislation
to a vote and pass the bill without further delay. The President will
underscore his concern about, and disappointment with, threats by some
within the Senate Republican leadership to use procedural tactics, such as
a filibuster, to thwart the will of the majority. The President and Ron
Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, will be joined by the American
Medical Association?s Dr. Andy Anderson and doctors from the American
Osteopathic Association, in launching the Patients? Rights Tour 2000, a
national tour sponsored by Families USA and grassroots organizations to
highlight the costs and consequences to millions of Americans of delaying
passage of this critical legislation.
PRESIDENT CLINTON CHALLENGES THE SENATE TO VOTE ON THE NORWOOD-DINGELL
PATIENTS? BILL OF RIGHTS. The President will point out that a majority of
the Senate supports a strong, enforceable, Patients? Bill of Rights similar
to the bipartisan Norwood-Dingell legislation, and will challenge the
Leadership to bring it up for a vote. This legislation is endorsed by over
300 health care provider and consumer advocacy groups, and is the only
bipartisan proposal currently being considered that includes:
? Protections for all Americans in all health plans;
? Protections from financial sanctions for patients receiving emergency
room care;
? Guarantees that assure access to necessary and accessible health care
specialists;
? Guarantees that assure access to a fair and timely internal and
independent external appeals process to address health plan grievances; and
? Meaningful enforcement mechanisms that ensure recourse for patients
who have been harmed as a result of a health plan?s actions.
PROCEDURAL TACTICS SHOULD NOT BE USED TO PREVENT THE PASSAGE OF A STRONG
PATIENTS? BILL OF RIGHTS. President Clinton will reiterate his concern
that Senate Republicans have indicated their intention to filibuster this
legislation and to use procedural tactics to thwart the will of the
majority. He will encourage the Senate to hold a straight up-or-down vote
on the Norwood-Dingell legislation without delay.
DELAY IN PASSING THE PATIENTS? BILL OF RIGHTS THREATENS THE HEALTH OF
ALMOST 50,000 AMERICANS EACH DAY. Today, Families USA will begin its
Patients? Rights 2000 tour, highlighting that unnecessary delay in passing
legislation to curb insurance company abuse results in harm to thousands of
patients daily and millions of patients annually. According to an analysis
by the Kaiser Family Foundation, each day without a strong Patients? Bill
of Rights results in 49,560 people being denied care or experiencing a
delay in the receipt of care.
FLAWED SENATE REPUBLICAN BILL REPRESENTS AN EMPTY PROMISE. Instead of the
strong legislation passed by the House, the Republican Senate has passed a
bill that would:
? Leave more than 135 million Americans without the guarantee of full
protections;
? Allow health plans to subject patients accessing emergency care to
high financial penalties;
? Fail to guarantee true access to necessary health care specialists;
? Fail to provide access to important clinical trials; and
? Establish a wholly inadequate enforcement mechanism that prevents
patients from holding health plans accountable when they make harmful
decisions.
CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION?S LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO PROMOTING
PATIENTS? RIGHTS. The Administration has a long history of promoting
patients? rights, and President Clinton has already extended many of these
protections through executive action to the 85 million Americans who get
their health care through federal plans ? from Medicare and Medicaid, to
the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP), to the Department of
Defense and the Veterans Administration. The Administration?s record on
patients? rights includes:
? Appointing a Quality Commission to examine potential quality concerns
in the changing health care industry. In 1997, the President created a
non-partisan, broad-based Commission on quality and charged it with
developing a patients? bill of rights as its first order of business. The
Quality Commission released two seminal reports focusing on patient
protections and quality improvement.
? Challenging Congress to Pass a Patients? Bill of Rights. In November
1997, the President accepted the Commission?s recommendation that all
health plans should provide strong patient protections and called on the
Congress to pass a strong enforceable patients? bill of rights. He also
called on the Congress to make passing the patients? bill of rights a top
priority in his 1998, 1999, and 2000 State of the Union Addresses.
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