Consumers Won't Be Fooled By Counterfeit Patients' Bill of Rights

New Internet Petition Gives Consumers a Vote for REAL Managed Care Patient Protections

(Washington, DC) As some in Congress try to push through counterfeit patient protections, consumers across the country will be able to demand that Congress pass a real patients' bill of rights through a new on-line petition housed on the Families USA website.

The petition, to be delivered to Congressional leaders later this year, calls for a Patients' Bill of Rights that includes: effective independent external appeals, access to needed prescription drugs, access to out-of-network providers, accountability for health plans that wrongfully deny care and other common sense protections. Over 30 national groups are placing the petition on their website and calling on people to sign on.

"Americans won't be fooled by counterfeit legislation," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "There are a number of bills masquerading as patients' rights legislation, but they establish very few rights and those rights only apply to a small number of Americans. They're as phony as three-dollar bills."

Last month, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, voting along party lines, reported out managed care legislation (S. 326) that will do little to protect managed care patients. The meager protection the legislation does offer applies to only one out of three Americans with employer-provided coverage.

"Of the bills currently in Congress, only the Patients' Bill of Rights Act (S.6/H.R. 358) will establish common sense protections for America's consumers," added Pollack. "Congressional leaders need to stop stalling, stop trying to fool Americans with a sham bill of rights, and pass legislation that will truly provide consumers with basic protections from managed care abuses."

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org