Bill of 2001
A patients' bill of rights was considered by Congress in 2001. Its proposed title was the "Bipartisan Patient Protection Act". It was known officially as Senate Bill S.1052 and informally as the "McCain-Edwards-Kennedy Patients' Bill of Rights". The bill was an attempt at providing comprehensive protections to all Americans covered by health insurance plans.
The House of Representatives and Senate passed differing versions of the proposed law. Although both bills would have provided patients key rights, such as prompt access to emergency care and medical specialists, only the Senate-passed measure would provide patients with adequate means to enforce their rights. The Senate's proposal would have conferred a broad array of rights on patients. It would have ensured that patients with health care plans had the right to:
- have their medical decisions made by a doctor;
- see a medical specialist;
- go to the closest emergency room;
- designate a pediatrician as a primary care doctor for their children;
- keep the same doctor throughout their medical treatment;
- obtain the prescription drugs their doctor prescribes;
- access a fair and independent appeals process if care is denied; and
- hold their health plan accountable for harm done.
The bill was passed by the US Senate by a vote of 59-36 in 2001, it was then amended the House of Representatives and returned to the Senate. However it ultimately failed.
Read more about this topic: U.S. Patients' Bill Of Rights
Famous quotes containing the words bill of and/or bill:
“Is a Bill of Rights a security for [religious liberty]? If there were but one sect in America, a Bill of Rights would be a small protection for liberty.... Freedom derives from a multiplicity of sects, which pervade America, and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)