On Friday, June 29, the U.S. Senate passed a strong managed care reform bill by a lopsided vote of 59-36. Congratulations and many thanks to all of you who have written letters, lobbied Senators, called health staffers and mobilized your state memberships. Your efforts and the efforts of everyone in the Federal Advocacy Network were vital to this victory, which was five years in the making.
DETAILS: As passed by the Senate, S. 1052, the "Bipartisan Patient Protection Act", includes effective health plan legal accountability with no caps on non-economic damages. Other APA priorities in the bill include: provider nondiscrimination, inclusion of psychologists on external review panels, access to specialists, point of service coverage and continuity of care when a provider is dropped from a panel.
THE VOTE: Every Democrat voted for final passage of the McCain/Edwards/Kennedy bill, along with nine Republicans: John McCain (AZ), Lincoln Chafee (RI), Susan Collins (ME), Mike DeWine (OH), Peter Fitzgerald (IL), Gordon Smith (OR), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA) and John Warner (VA).
Click here to see the full Senate roll call vote on the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
ACTION: Please call or write Senators who voted YES and thank them. Many of these Senators will receive an avalanche of letters and calls criticizing their vote for patient protection. They need to know we appreciate their vote.
THE HOUSE: With the McCain bill passed in the Senate, the patient protection debate is shifting to the House of Representatives. As many of you already know, three committee chairmen, with the blessing of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, have introduced H.R. 2315, a competing patient protection bill that offers insufficient legal accountability to patients (the bill caps non-economic damages at $500,000). Both the White House and these committee chairmen have begun to lobby undecided Republicans in what is shaping up to be a very close House vote.
HOUSE ACTION: The APA is urging members to use the Practice Organization Legislative Hotline (800-401-9888) to contact their Representatives with the following message:
"As a constituent and a psychologist, I urge the member to SUPPORT and COSPONSOR H.R. 526, the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, sponsored by Congressman Greg Ganske (R-IA). Also, I urge the member to OPPOSE H.R. 2315, offered by Congressman Ernie Fletcher (R-KY), which includes unacceptably low caps on non-economic damages."
TARGETS: We particularly need calls to go into some targeted Republicans. These calls should include the message above.
These members supported final passage of the strong patient protection bill offered by Congressman Charlie Norwood in the last Congress. We want them to support the similar bill Congressman Ganske is sponsoring in this Congress:
Alabama- Sonny Callahan
California- Mary Bono, Duncan Hunter, Elton Gallegly
Colorado- Joel Hefley
Delaware- Mike Castle
Florida- Bill Young, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Georgia- Saxby Chambliss
Illinois- Henry Hyde
Kansas- Jerry Moran
Louisiana- David Vitter
Maryland- Wayne Gilchrest
New Mexico- Heather Wilson
New York- Sue Kelly, John McHugh, Thomas Reynolds, John Sweeney, Jim Walsh
North Carolina- Howard Coble, Walter Jones
Ohio- Steve LaTourette
Pennsylvania- Don Sherwood, Curt Weldon
South Carolina- Floyd Spence
Tennessee- John Duncan, Bill Jenkins, Zach Wamp
Texas- Kevin Brady
Utah- Chris Cannon
Virginia- Tom Davis, Frank Wolf
Again, thank you for all of your hard work!
