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WASHINGTON - After listening sessions and meetings with over 70 patients-rights advocates, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and medical groups, U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Charlie Dent (R-Penn.), and members of the centrist Tuesday Group, today released details of the "Medical Rights and Reform Act," a comprehensive health care reform proposal.
“The Medical Rights and Reform Act applies common-sense centrist principles to the health care debate by lowering costs and expanding access without compromising the doctor-patient relationship, jeopardizing the quality of American medicine or raising taxes on the American people,” Congressman Kirk said. “While some proposals would manage costs by letting the federal government delay or deny life-saving tests and treatments to millions of Americans, the Medical Rights and Reform Act guarantees patients’ rights while reducing the cost of health insurance for all Americans. We can reform health care without breaking the bank.”
“This package makes deliberate and responsible reforms to our health care system that reinforces the strengths of American health care while addressing the shortcomings,” Congressman Dent said. “We will expand access to care by making health insurance more affordable and giving all Americans more options and control over their health care decisions. We will improve the quality of care by focusing on prevention and wellness, employing technologies that reduce errors, and promoting medical breakthroughs.”
Protects the Doctor-Patient Relationship
The Medical Rights and Reform Act would mandate a fundamental principle – the government should not come between patients and their doctors. The Act will protect every American’s relationship with their doctor, the integrity of the medical profession and the right of Americans to choose the care they deem appropriate without federal delay or restriction.
Lowers Health Care Costs
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey conducted in October 2008 found that making heath care and health insurance more affordable is the most important health care issue cited by voters (50%), doubling the second ranked issue, expanding health insurance coverage for the uninsured (23%).
To lower health care costs, the Act will foster state innovation through insurance market reforms, high-risk pools, community health networks, and new association options for small businesses.
The bill also includes: lawsuit reforms to end the practice of defensive medicine and ensure fair compensation for injured patients; upgrades and acceleration of health IT programs to improve the quality of care and reduce errors; strong standards and processes to target waste, fraud and abuse; targeted prevention and wellness programs to address costly chronic diseases and promote healthy living; and greater tax incentives for individuals and small businesses to buy health insurance.
Expands Health Insurance Coverage
The bill also expands access to Americans without health insurance by: providing greater incentives to small businesses to cover their employees; encouraging state-centered insurance markets reforms; giving low-income families the option to use public funds to purchase private health insurance plans; enhancing Health Savings Accounts; allowing young adults to remain dependents on their parent’s plan; and expanding rural health care programs.
Problems in Canada and the United Kingdom
As Congress considers proposals for health care reform, mandating the government to take over health care decisions for families could have consequences. A close examination of government-run health care in Canada and the United Kingdom shows sharp contrasts in the quality of medical services:
• Americans more likely to survive cancer than Europeans/Canadians. One study puts the five-year cancer survivability rate for American women at 63 percent, but only 56 percent for European women. For men, the difference is starker with 66 percent survivability for Americans and only 47 percent for Europeans. A separate comparison of U.S. and Canadian citizens shows similar results. American women’s survival rate is 61 percent, compared to 58 percent in Canada. American men’s survival rate is 57 percent, and 53 percent in Canada. Sources: Lancet Oncology, 2007, No. 8; Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S., National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2007.
• Delay is denial of care. In the U.S., only 26 percent of sick adults waited more than four weeks to see a specialist. In Canada and the UK, more than twice as many citizens wait longer than a month to receive the care they need (60 percent and 58 percent, respectively). Source: 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults.
• The sickest patients need intensive care. In Britain, government hospitals maintain nine intensive care unit beds per 100,000 people. In America, we have three times that number at 31 per 100,000. Source: High-Priced Pain: What to expect from a Single-Payer Health Care System, Heritage Foundation, 9/22/2006.
• New technology finds disease quicker. In America, doctors use 27 MRI machines per million people. In Canada and Britain, it is less than a fifth of that at approximately five MRI machines per million people. Source: Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S., National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2007.
• Long waits increase pain and morbidity. In the U.S., over 90 percent of seniors receive a hip replacement within six months. In Canada, less than half of patients are treated in the same time (43 percent) with many waiting over a year. In the UK, only 15 percent of patients are treated within six months. Source: Doing Your Own Health Care Thing: American Seniors vs. Canadian Citizens, Heritage Foundation, 7/1/2005.
• U.S. care for infants outpaces UK and Canada. In the U.S., we have over six neonatologists per 10,000 live births. In Canada, they have fewer than four and in Britain fewer than three. In the U.S., we have over three neonatal intensive care beds per 10,000 births, just 2.6 in Canada and less than one in Britain. Source: High-Priced Pain: What to expect from a Single-Payer Health Care System, Heritage Foundation, 9/22/2006.
• Women receive better preventative care (pap smears/mammograms) in America. Nearly 90 percent of American women age 40 – 69 have had a mammogram, while only 72 percent of Canadian women have had a screening. Likewise, 96 percent of American women age 20 - 69 have had a Pap smear, with 88 percent of Canadian women undergoing the test for cervical cancer. Source: Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S., National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2007.
 Data collection: Harris Interactive, Inc. Source: 2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults.
Stories of poor care under a government-run system are common in Britain. Last February, the Daily Mail reported on Mrs. Dorothy Simpson, 61, who had an irregular heartbeat. Officials at the National Health Service (NHS) denied her care and told her she was "too old." The Guardian reported in June 2007 that one in eight NHS hospital patients wait more than a year for treatment.
For a section-by-section summary of the Medical Rights and Reform Act click here.
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