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CCAR Resolution on "National Health Care," 1991 We will continue to press Congress for a real, comprehensive Patients¦ Bill of Rights. The bipartisan bill (S. 283/H.R. 526) introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Edwards (D-NC) and in the House by Representative Greg Ganske (R-IA) is an excellent one. This bill would meet real needs by ensuring emergency room access to all patients, providing greater accessibility to specialists, guaranteeing consumers a fair appeals process of decisions made by HMOs, and holding HMOs legally accountable for service denied. We will work with Congress and the Administration to ensure that senior citizens have insurance coverage for prescription drugs. We can all agree that no senior should have to choose between buying needed medication and affording the basic costs of living. We will monitor all of the various proposals and support those which most responsibly meets the needs of senior citizens. We will also work with the President and Congress to expand one of the most successful federal health programs ever, the Children¦s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP allows the federal and state governments to share the cost of providing insurance for children in low-income families. We will both seek full funding for CHIP and encourage state legislatures to implement the program to its full potential. Building on significant increases in last year¦s budget for the funding of HIV/AIDS programs, we will seek to ensure the reauthorization of those funding levels. We will continue to work with the National Organizations Responding to AIDS (NORA) and other coalition partners to advocate better treatment and aggressive research for those living with HIV/AIDS. The completion of the first draft of the human genome and the recent discovery of where our genes are clustered on human DNA have brought us closer to the day when we can learn how to prevent or control diseases before they develop. Unfortunately though, genetic information is too often used for nefarious purposes: by insurers who charge higher premiums for customers with genetic predisposition to diseases, and by employers who take predictive genetic information into account for hiring, termination or promotion decisions. Moreover, fears of potential information abuse have caused Americans to avoid genetic testing that could save lives. We will support the Genetic Nondiscrimination in Health
Insurance and Employment Act (S. 318/H.R. 602), which
was introduced in February by Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD),
Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Tom
Harkin (D-IA) and Representatives Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
and Connie Morella (R-MD). This legislation would prohibit
employers and heath insurance carriers from using predictive
genetic information or genetic testing in hiring, compensation
or personnel purposes. The bill would also ban health
plans and insurers from restricting enrollment or adjusting
premiums on the basis of genetic information, and from
requiring that an individual take a genetic test or
reveal the results of genetic tests. This bill attracted
strong support last Congress but was never brought to
the floor for a vote. We will work diligently with Members
of Congress to ensure that genetic information is used
for the right purposes and never serves as an impediment
to seeking medical treatment. We will also advocate
the responsible use of fetal tissue and stem cell research,
both of which are promising frontiers that can provide
information for invaluable medical advances.
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