-----Original Message----- From: Virtual Majordomo Account [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Justice For All Moderator Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2000 9:44 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Patients' Rights and Medicare/Prescription Drugs Justice For All [log in to unmask] Patients' Rights and Medicare/Prescription Drugs Jeff Kirsch, [log in to unmask], writes: PATIENTS' RIGHTS While the Republican staff have been meeting behind the scene, the Senate-House Conference Committee meets today to start the public part of the work to report out a patients' rights bill. The Republican leadership says it wants work done on a bill before the end of the month and sent to the President before the spring recess (April 15). We're pushing for the bi-partisan House bill, which has strong protections and holds managed care companies accountable. However, as we've reported before, the Conference Committee is stacked against a strong bill. We and our colleagues are meeting with White House staff to encourage them to keep firm and insist on strong protections (and to urge them to veto any bill that is a sham or that includes provisions that weaken the health insurance system. (We have done fact sheets on some of these "poison pill" provisions that are in the bill, which can be found on our web site at: http://familiesusa.org/poisonp.htm.) We encourage you to contact your members of congress (which you can do electronically from our Web site's Legislative Action Center, http://congress.nw.dc.us/familiesusa) or call your local office. Also, letters-to-the-editor on patients' rights are very useful. We urge you to write a brief letter emphasizing that it's time for Congress to act on this issue and report out a real patients' protection bill, like the bi-partisan House bill, that allows your doctor to make decisions and holds the HMOs accountable for their decisions, just like doctors and hospitals are held liable for their actions. Also, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health have been monitoring public attitudes towards managed care and Americans' views on alternative approaches to consumer protection. An updated summary of Kaiser's public opinion work on this issue, including new findings from a survey conducted earlier this month is available on-line at http://www.kff.org/content/2000/3005a .. MEDICARE AND PRESCRIPTION DRUGS There is a lot of talk about this issue, and it's HOT. The public is strongly supportive of providing prescription drug coverage, but it's hard to know whether any legislation will move in this election year. The President has just released a report on Medicare, which the White House hopes will promote action. (See the summary at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Work/022900.html.) The pharmaceutical industry, recognizing the power of the issue, has been spending millions of dollars in advertising to limit what Congress does about prescription drugs. They favor a limited drug benefit that can be delivered through private insurance. They oppose a government-run benefit because they are fearful of the government setting reimbursement rates. Moreover, as you'll see from the Health Insurance Association of America release at the end of this memo, it is opposed to creating a drug benefit that would be delivered through private insurance plans. As you can see, our opposition is fighting each other on this. We should continue to push for a prescription drug benefit that is a universal Medicare benefit (not just the low-income) and that is affordable (both in terms of what people on Medicare pay for the Medicare benefit, and what prices they are charged for the drugs). We also have to make sure that, in our push for a drug benefit, that the Medicare program is not changed in dangerous ways, such as is envisioned in the radical Breaux-Frist privatization proposal. This plan would weaken traditional Medicare, and penalize seniors for not joining HMOs. We'll keep you posted on these developments. Here's the HIAA press release so you can see how part of the opposition is expressing itself. -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Carrie B. Tydings February 29, 2000 (202) 824-1786 e-mail: [log in to unmask] The following statement was released today by Chip Kahn, President of the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA): The Health Insurance Association of America appreciates the President's commitment to helping seniors pay for prescription drugs, but there is a better way. The President's proposal to provide prescription drug coverage is simply the addition of an expensive benefit to a program which is already in significant financial trouble and in need of broader reform. Because real reform will take time, HIAA has formulated a plan that will provide immediate help to seniors by providing tax credits for out-of-pocket expenses, financial support for low-income seniors, and fair payments to Medicare+Choice plans-- most of which offer drug benefits. This is a better option than the President's plan or other proposed plans which rely on new private drug insurance options or mandates. "Stand-alone" drug-only insurance policies, as some have proposed, simply will not work in the real world. Further, mandating that Medicare+Choice or Medigap plans cover prescription drugs will only increase premiums and force many seniors to lose coverage altogether. Lastly, the President's plan to extend coverage to Americans aged 55-65 would place an enormous burden on the already financially beleaguered Medicare program. HIAA's proposal-InsureUSA-would help provide private insurance coverage for these Americans through tax relief and additional help for low-income Americans between 55-65. Jeff Kirsch, Field Director Families USA 1334 G St., NW Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202-628-3030 Fax: 202-347-2417 [log in to unmask] www.familiesusa.org "Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Fred Fay Chair, Justice For All [log in to unmask] http://www.jfanow.org Register to Vote Online at http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm ===================================================================== Justice-For-All FREE Subscriptions To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to [log in to unmask] with one or the other in the body of your message: subscribe justice unsubscribe justice