U.S. Senator John H.
Chafee, speaking at a meeting of the Employer Health Care Coalition last
week, made a prediction about President Clinton’s State of the Union
speech next month.
“I’d be willing to bet the farm that his address will have managed
care” front and center, Chafee told the group of Rhode Island employers
seeking to change the way health care is purchased.
Your Business Has Gone Global. Has Your Insurance?
A decade ago, “doing business internationally” was mostly a large-company concern. Today, a manufacturer in…
Learn More
For Chafee, that would be a good thing. The head of the Senate Finance
Committee in the 106th Congress plans to reintroduce a bipartisan bill
aimed at protecting patients’ rights.
The Promoting Responsible Managed Care Act “seeks to leave the medical
decision-making to doctors and their patients, and to ensure that
patients get what they are paying for with their hard-earned dollars,”
Chafee said. “Patients want the right to see a specialist when they need
one. Our bill assures that. They want assurances they will get the
medicines their doctors say they need, that plans are not providing
financial incentives to their doctors to withhold medically necessary
treatment and that health care plans will cover emergency medical
services. Our bill would address all these concerns and more.”
Along with Republican Chafee, the bill’s co-sponsors are Republican
Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democratic Sens. Bob Graham of
Florida, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Max Baucus of Montana.
In the last Congress, Democrats led by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy
introduced the so-called Patient Bill of Rights. Republican leaders
countered with an alternative bill. In the end, both died.
Chafee insisted his bill combines “the best features of both the
Democratic and Republican plans” and leaves out “the provisions which
are objectionable to either side.”
