Special Section in Roll Call Highlights Lawmakers’ Views on Prescription Drugs, the Uninsured, Bioterrorism

The Feb. 14 Roll Call includes a "briefing" on health care policy from eight different lawmakers. The following outlines the articles in the special section.

• " Senate's Doctor Is On Call": Roll Call interviewed Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on bioterrorism. According to Frist, America remains "underprepared -- not unprepared" to address potential bioterrorism attacks. Frist said, "[I]t's going to take ... a decade before we can rebuild our public health system" to adequately handle an "ongoing threat from bioterrorism."
• " Break the Patients' Rights Stalemate," by Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.): According to Norwood, "there's not a dime of difference" between the liability provisions in the House and Senate patients' rights bills. Norwood added that depending on which bill is eventually approved by both chambers, "HMO queen Karen Ignagni or billionaire trial lawyer Dickey Scruggs would be mighty steamed," but patients enrolled in managed care plans would "have the same legal rights restored either way" (Norwood, Roll Call, 2/14). The House and Senate last summer passed patients' rights bills that differed on the extent of their right-to-sue provisions. The Senate bill (S 1052) would have allowed patients to sue HMOs in state court -- generally considered more hospitable to plaintiffs -- for denial of benefits or quality of care issues and in federal court for non-quality of care issues. It capped damages awarded in federal court at $5 million, but allowed state courts to award as much in damages as the state allows (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/2/01). The House bill (HR 2563) offered a narrower right to sue. It would have allowed patients to sue health plans in state court for non-economic damages of up to $1.5 million, and would have allowed courts to award patients up to $1.5 million in punitive damages, but only in cases where patients won complaints against health plans before an outside appeals panel and an HMO "still persist[ed] in refusing the care they need" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/3/01).
• " Provide COBRA, Not Tax Credits," by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.): Kennedy writes that "our national priorities are profoundly wrong if we fail to ... give long overdue priority to needed health reforms." According to Kennedy, "[i]t is time to act" by providing a 75% subsidy for laid-off workers to purchase health coverage through COBRA, and states should expand their CHIP programs to include parents (Kennedy, Roll Call, 2/14). Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) has introduced a bill (S 1916) that would require the federal government to provide such a COBRA subsidy. A similar provision was included in the Democrats' economic stimulus package that was blocked by Senate Republicans last November (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/8).
• " New Delivery Method Makes Tax Credits Ideal," by Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.): According to Johnson, if the Senate had passed the House version of the economic stimulus package, workers who recently lost their jobs would now have "help in keeping their health insurance for the first time in our nation's history" (Johnson, Roll Call, 2/14). The House bill included a tax credit to cover up to 60% of the cost of health insurance for unemployed workers (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/20/01). Johnson notes that tax credits for health insurance have previously been criticized as only helping people with middle and upper-level incomes, but adds that the tax credit called for in the House bill is a "real advancement" because it is "refundable" and "progressive." Johnson writes, "We must not lose this [House stimulus bill] idea for future bills" (Roll Call, 2/14).
• " Federal Workers Plan is Best Model," by Sen. John Breaux (D-La.): According to Breaux, the lack of a prescription drug benefit is Medicare's "most glaring problem." Breaux writes that Medicare "does a better job" of caring for seniors after they become sick than of "keeping people healthy." According to Breaux, the "current political landscape" offers lawmakers the best chance to approve a Medicare prescription drug benefit (Breaux, Roll Call, 2/14).
• " Senior Drug Plan Must Lower Cost of Medicine," by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): Even though "the prescription drug situation in this country is nothing less than scandalous" and the "debate" in Congress over prescription drug costs is more about campaign finance reform than health care, "year after year" Congress "refuses to take action," Sanders says. Sanders then outlines a bill, HR 1512, which he says would accomplish three goals: lower "outrageously high" drug prices, ensure drug companies do not "rip off" the federal government and provide a "strong, comprehensive" Medicare prescription drug benefit (Sanders, Roll Call, 2/14).
• " Send Bioterrorism Funds To States," by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): Bayh, who states that "[p]ublic safety must be our government's first responsibility," details a "base block grant" proposal that would be given to states based on population. Bayh writes that the "philosophy is simple: Give the funds to those who know best how to use them, and give them the expertise and technical support of the federal government" (Bayh, Roll Call, 2/14).
• " Drug Stockpiles, Early Warning Are Critical," by Rep. Greg Ganske (R-Iowa): According to Ganske, "It is time to practice some preventive medicine and get prepared" for possible bioterrorist attacks. Ganske outlines his Bioterrorism Preparedness Act, which would "accomplish" several "goals," including "tighten[ing] controls" on biological agents; establishing national stockpiles for drugs and vaccines; initiating "quicker" communication regarding health threats to health professionals; researching "better treatments"; and increasing capacity of the country's health system to accomodate "large numbers of really sick people" (Ganske, Roll Call, 2/14).