Friday, September 12, 2003

For Patients' Rights, a Quiet Fadeaway
Washington Post article called to our attention by the outstanding Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "... the crusade for patients' rights has faded from view -- both at the White House and in Congress. Apart from one sentence in his State of the Union address in January, Bush has not mentioned the topic all year. The father of the patients' rights movement in Congress, Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (R-Ga.), resurrected legislation in March so half-heartedly that he decided not to seek any co-sponsors. In the Senate, the issue's main champions have not even gone through the motions of filing a bill. It was two years ago that the drive to protect the nation's patients crested, when Bush and Norwood reached an agreement on the issue's most divisive aspect: how much recourse to give patients in the courts if their health plans deprive them of care. The House accepted the surprise deal, but more than a year of negotiations between the White House and the Senate quietly ended in an impasse..."  
  

VA Overhaul May Limit Vets' Access to Care
ABC News story - "Senators on Thursday said they were worried that a major overhaul of the Veterans Affairs Department health care system would deprive some veterans of access to treatment. ... The top lawmakers on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, chairman Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., also wrote Alvarez recently saying one of their greatest concerns was whether the process adequately addressed such specialized VA programs as geriatrics, long-term care, mental health, substance abuse and homelessness."