 
 Association of American Physicians &
Surgeons
The Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943
Legislative news &
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1. Medical liability passes House
2. Abortion non-discrimination moves
to Senate – Action
needed!
3. Vaccine liability bills still
need public action
4. AAPS helps stall pediatric drug
rule – Action needed!
5. Other Washington
news--
New FDA chief
Action on HIPAA
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1. Medical liability bill passes
House
On Sept. 26, the House of
Representatives passed H.R. 4600, the “Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost,
Timely Health Care (HEALTH) Act of 2002. The bill now moves to the Senate. The vote was along party lines, with 14
Democrats supporting. (Bill summary, text and voting: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.04600:
This is good news and bad news. The good news is that lawmakers are
finally paying attention to the devastating effects of policy on litigation,
medical liability premiums and availability. The bad news is that it does not address
the root causes, and may exceed federal authority.
In the words of Congressman Ron
Paul, M.D., (a lifetime AAPS member) on the floor of the
House:
“…while I support the
efforts of the sponsors of HR 4600 to address the crisis in health care caused
by
excessive malpractice
litigation and insurance premiums, I cannot support this bill. HR 4600
exceeds
Congress'
constitutional limitations and denies full compensation to those harmed by the
unintentional
effects of federal
vaccine mandates. Instead of furthering unconstitutional authority, my
colleagues should
focus on addressing
the root causes of the malpractice crisis by supporting efforts to restore the
primacy
of contract to the
doctor-patient relationships.”
To read the entire
text of Dr. Paul’s eloquent statement, visit http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr092602.htm
The bill is supported
by the AMA, with whom we have been working closely to advance liability reform,
and the bill incorporates a number of the proposals outlined in the AAPS
“Primer on Medical
Malpractice Reform.” If you would like more information on
H.R. 4600 and the Senate version, there is a summary and analysis posted by the
AMA at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6087.html
2. Abortion non-discrimination bill
passes House
Last week the House passed H.R.
4691, the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) by a vote of 229 to 189,
largely along party lines, with the Republicans supporting. It now moves to the Senate as S. 2008
sponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg.
Michael Bilirakis
H.R. 4691 clarifies the scope of a
nondiscrimination statute (42 USC §238n) that Congress overwhelmingly approved
in 1996. The current law protects “health care entities,” including
medical residency programs, from being forced by government bodies to provide
abortions or abortion training. The new bill makes it clear that this
protection extends to the full range of health care entities, including
hospitals and individual health
professionals. It also applies this protection to entities being told
they must pay for abortions against their will. This does not place any restrictions on
abortions, instead allowing individual physicians and others to follow their own
consciences.
Please thank your member for a yes
vote, and urge your Senators to do the same.
To read the HOUSE bill summary, text
and how your representative voted, see:
To read the SENATE
version:
3. Vaccine liability bill still
needs public action
Last week we sent you an alert about
two bills pertaining to vaccines.
The first, S. 2053 sponsored by Sen. Frist (R-TN) and would create new hurdles for the
vaccine-injured. (The House version
is H.R. 5282)
The second is House bill H.R. 3741
sponsored by Reps. Dan Burton (R-IN) and Henry Waxman
(D-CA).
We urged that you help defeat the
Frist bill and its House version, and support the Burton/Waxman bill. There has been no movement on either on
the calendar, but please keep up your efforts.
H.R. 3741 Burton/Waxman: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:h.r.03741:
S. 2053 Frist:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:s.02053:
4. AAPS helps stall pediatric drug
rule
Attempts at political maneuvering
could get a controversial bill on the Senate calendar, but so far we have been
able to stall it. Last week, we
sent a letter to Sen. Rick Santorum to urge him to keep it off the
calendar. So far so
good.
The bill, S. 2394 would require
pediatric testing for all new drugs.
Supporters of the bill have tried to portray AAPS and others who oppose
it as impeding delivery of drugs to children.
But AAPS opposes this bill because
it hurts children, instead of helping them. We cannot support
unrestricted clinical pediatric trials.
Also, the legislation would add further delays to the FDA approval
process, making new drugs unavailable to the entire population. (Click
here to read AAPS letter and analysis of the
bill.)
Supporters are trying to sneak this
controversial bill onto the “consent calendar” to be approved with a batch of
other bills (like post office naming) that will be approved unless someone
objects. ASK YOUR SENATOR TO OBJECT TO “SENATE
CALENDAR 547.”
To reach your Senator: http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
5. Other
New FDA
chief
Dr. Mark McClellan has been
nominated to become FDA commissioner, leaving his position as the president’s
chief health care policy advisor, where he has been influential in shaping the
administration’s free-market agenda.
Action on
HIPAA
Congressional offices are reporting
contact from doctors about problems with the HIPAA regulations, particularly the
privacy regs. PLEASE KEEP UP THE
PRESSURE.
We are working on some legislative
language that could be instrumental in assuring a right to medical privacy, as
well as additional litigation.
Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons
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