Press Release Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Contact: Janell Mayo Duncan 202-462-6262 Consumers Union Washington, DC Office

FRIST-BREAUX-JEFFORDS PATIENTS' BILL RAISES CONCERNS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Janell Mayo Duncan, legislative counsel for Consumers Union, made the following statement today regarding the patients' rights bill introduced by Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), John Breaux (D-La.), and Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.). The senators unveiled the bill today as an alternative to the one introduced in February by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.):

"The McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill offers the bare minimum of protection that patients need. Consumers Union would oppose a bill that offers less than the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill.

"Unfortunately, it appears that the Frist-Breaux-Jeffords bill would cut back on the amount of legal accountability imposed on health maintenance organizations (HMOs) by the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill. We will scrutinize the details of this new bill carefully, but preliminary reports suggest that it is more concerned with protecting managed care companies than protecting patients.

"A meaningful bill aimed at reforming the managed care system should do four things:

· It should allow patients to hold their health plans legally accountable for their decisions.
· It should provide patients a process to make complaints about their health plans and, if necessary, appeal their plans' decisions to an independent party.
· It should cover all Americans with private health insurance
· It should not include measures that make health care less affordable for the sick, such as medial savings accounts, association health plans, and HealthMarts.

"The McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill represents the least that Congress should do. The bill offered by Senators Frist, Breaux, and Jeffords appears to be a non-starter. Reportedly, this bill not only offers less than its Senate alternative; it appears to offer much less than the bill approved by the House by a wide margin in 1999.

"This debate has dragged on for years. It is quite clear that the managed care industry is driven more by profits than the delivery of adequate health care. The sooner that Congress passes a bill like the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards bill, the sooner that patients with managed care plans can get the care they deserve," Duncan said.

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Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, is an independent nonprofit testing, educational and information organization serving only the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public and protect consumers