[Please scroll down for update]
And so it comes to pass that we learn Senator Kennedy's staff are busy bees, having ground out a 167-page interim draft of a Bill they are pleased to call the American Health Choices Act. A copy was leaked over the weekend. The text of the draft Bill and the article where I saw it are here - both are at Keith Hennessey.com, the economics blog. I recommend you read Hennessey's entire linked post on this draft Bill.
My reading of the draft Bill so far: Congressional staffers are far along in defining what will be theirs to choose, ours to obey.
If you decide also to scan thru the draft Bill, you will almost immediately come upon this:
6 SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.Paragraphs (a) and (b) sound innocuous but are not. Still, it's paragraphs (c) and (d) that really creep me out.
7 (a) RIGHTS OF PATIENTS TO CHOOSE THEIR DOC
8 TOR.-It is the right of patients to select the doctor of
9 their choice.
10 (b) DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP.-A strong
11 doctor-patient relationship is essential to the practice of
12 medicine, and patients have a right to an effective doctor-
13 patient relationship.
14 (c) HEALTH PROFESSIONALS SHOULD JUDGE WHAT
15 Is BEST FOR THEIR PATIENTS.-Doctors, nurses, and
16 other health professionals have the right to judge what
17 is best for their patients.
18 (d) No INTERFERENCE WITH THESE RIGHTS.-
19 Nothing in the this Act or the amendments made by this
20 Act interferes with the rights described in this section.
Paragraph (c) grants no legal right to patients, to influence the judgement of what is best for them. Perhaps more importantly, paragraph (c) grants patients no legal right to refuse treatment that a doctor may prescribe. Only "health professionals" are given these rights. And then paragraph (d) says "we really mean it."
Does this strike you as a little creepy? It sure does me.
Ah well, as the man once said at his finest moment in the movie, So let it be written, so let it be done.
Maybe this is only a movie.
UPDATE [HGS]: Mike's done an outstanding job of delineating some of the problems with this legislation. From an agent's (and free market advocate) perspective, this is certainly frightening:
"Specifically, §2704(a) is the “Requirement to provide value for premium payments.” A health plan must report how much of their premium revenues are used for clinical services, how much for “activities that improve health care quality,” and how much for “all other non-claims costs.”
§2704(b)(1) then tells the Secretary to look at how much other health plans spent on “all other non-claims costs,” and based on that survey, set an allowable percentage for this category. Plans are then required to rebate premiums if they go above this amount. This is direct (but confusing) regulation of premiums and profit margins."
What this means is that an insurer which is able to operate more efficiently (that is, save money on claims) will actually be penalized for doing so.
Brilliant.
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