Frist Declares Senate 'Health Care Week'

[Bob Geiger]

How he managed to keep a straight face while speaking the words is still unclear, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has announced that this will be "Health Care Week" in the United States Senate. Frist announced on Friday that the Senate's primary business for this week will be to debate and vote on a number of Republican-sponsored bills that, according to Frist, will "..deliver to the American people a system that works."

In the highly-likely event you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, yes, Frist's pet project is indeed a protection scheme for the big insurance companies in the guise of S. 22, the Medical Care Access Protection Act of 2006.

The bill, sponsored by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and cosponsored by 17 other Republicans, is allegedly intended to ".. improve patient access to health care services and provide improved medical care by reducing the excessive burden the liability system places on the health care delivery system."

Ensign's legislation would take care of that burden on the "health care delivery system" by, oddly enough, protecting the insurance companies by capping at $250,000 all awards to citizens done wrong by doctors or hospitals.

"Who do the Republicans want to help? The people getting help under this Republican majority are special interests," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "Republicans don't have a single prescription for America's health care emergency, except that they have a cabinet full of medicine to fatten big business."

"On Monday, they want to have a vote on this same, tired medical malpractice bill that we have defeated day in, day out, week in, week out, month after month, year after year. They keep bringing them up and having them defeated. Why? Because they do not mean anything to the American people," continued Reid. "If we are going to do something about health care, are we going to do something that just makes the insurance industry even bigger and stronger and fatter than it now is? That is what these medical malpractice bills do; they enrich the insurance industry and do nothing to help working Americans."

Another measure that Frist will bring to the floor this week is S. 23, the Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act. Sponsored by that champion of women's rights, Rick Santorum (R-PA), this legislation is intended to help women by -- you guessed it -- "…reducing the excessive burden the liability system places on the delivery of obstetrical and gynecological services."

The Santorum bill proposes essentially the same $250,000 limit on damage awards as its companion bill, S. 22, and both pieces of legislation are based on similar laws that have been enacted in -- get ready for another surprise -- Texas.

"Doctors make mistakes and hurt people. In our system of fairness and justice, the only way to respond is with dollars," said Reid, in speaking to both bills on the Senate floor Friday. "To set these arbitrary caps to save the insurance industry is senseless and unfair. Not one of these bills we are going to take up next week has anything to do with helping people with their health care."

"We need a new direction in health care. Republicans have had 5 1/2 years to put their arms around this crisis. But even with control of the White House, the Senate, and the House, they failed. They continue to hold in their arms the insurance industry."

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also called the GOP on the very assumption that there is a direct correlation between high awards for malpractice damages and the high insurance premiums paid by doctors (that they claim are driving up the costs of health care).

"Health care providers pay onerous amounts to be insured. That is why I have introduced a bill directed specifically toward medical malpractice insurance reform," said Leahy. "After all, there is no correlation between malpractice claims and rising insurance premiums. Between 2000 and 2004, insurers increased premiums 134 percent, even though payments remained flat."

"The fact is, there is one place that makes money. Claims go down and insurance premiums go up. It is like the rising gas prices and the record oil company profits. Maybe we ought to be asking medical malpractice insurers exactly why their premiums are so exorbitant."

And, as Reid rightly pointed out, just what have the Republicans done to help Americans on health care while controlling all three branches of government? Not a lot if you look at the tremendous jump in the number of Americans with no health insurance since the GOP has been in charge.

As the chart below illustrates, 38.7 million of us had no health insurance when the Supreme Court awarded Bush the presidency and 45.8 million have no coverage as of the end of 2004. The numbers aren’t out yet, but you can bet that figure will go still higher when we see how many people lost their insurance in 2005.



That's a hard number for Frist to explain away: Seven million more Americans unable to go to the doctor in just the first four years of total GOP rule.

Reid summed it up nicely when talking about what can be expected over the next few days in the Senate.

"It is not what they say they stand for, it is whom they stand for that matters. And it is not for the American people. With their health care week, the majority is making it very clear they stand with insurance companies, not the American people," said Reid. "With a national emergency on health care we are going to spend a handful of days, literally. This Health Care Week is a public relations gimmick -- something like the 'Mission Accomplished.'"

You can reach Bob Geiger at [e-mail] and read more from him at Democrats.com.

[Warpy]

1. I don't think their figure for the number of uninsured is correct

because too many people are being priced out of the system by companies that are passing along policy increases through paycheck deductions while pay is kept flat and prices for everyday necessities are soaring. The number just doesn't compute.

Then there are the people who are now underemployed at low wage, dead end jobs thanks to the corporate offshoring craze. There is no way they can afford coverage even if the new job offers it.

This is just another diddled number from a pack of liars.

[yellowcanine]

2. Frist declares Monday May 8 as "Video Diagnostic Day"

As part of his Senate Health Care Week, Bill Frist has declared Monday, May 8 as "Video Diagnostic Day." In a statement released by his office the Senate Majority Leader said, "Speaking as a doctor and not as a senator, I want to make the American people aware of the tremendous potential of remote diagnostics using promising new video and internet technology. With the assistance of the internet you can now access the best medical expertise America has to offer from the comfort of your home or office. To demonstrate how this can work, I will hold office hours from my senate office building this afternoon from 2pm to 4 pm. Patients may email me videos of their medical conditions and I will make a diagnosis and email it back to them or to their primary health care provider. The address to send the videos to is [e-mail] "

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Is he giving out more free TV diagnoses? n/t

[OneBlueSky]

4. gee . . . wonder which industry and their lobbyists wrote THESE bills . .

could it be-e-e-e-e-e . . . .

the INSURANCE industry?????? . . .

duh . . .

[ToeBot]

5. So in the spirit of the 'Clear Skies Initive'...

and the 'Healthy Forests Initiative' can we expect Frist to, maybe, start a plague? Perhaps he will take a page from his political mentors and recommend culling the sick, the elderly and the socially undesirable. I suppose he will just spend allot of time on television blathering - I'm feeling queasy already. I guess the notion of "do no harm" is just a suggestion. It's not like he took an oath or anything.