March 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 3
AAFP responds to early initiatives of Bush, Congress
President George W. Bush and federal lawmakers announced plans for health initiatives in the first few weeks of the new administration, and the Academy quickly responded.
Seniors' drug benefit
"President Bush has taken an important step with the new Congress early in his administration by calling for a prescription drug benefit for seniors," AAFP President Richard Roberts, M.D., J.D., of Madison, Wis., said Feb. 1. "However, the administration's draft proposal falls far short of what is needed."
Roberts said turning the benefit over to the states to establish programs separate from Medicare would take too long "and would establish an inconsistent patchwork of programs."
He added, "President Bush is right to give priority consideration to those below or near the poverty level, but those in the next higher income bracket would find the $6,000 out-of-pocket threshold for participation prohibitive and might continue to do as many do now, stretching out prescriptions or not filling them."
Patients' bill of rights
Early last month, several representatives and senators announced a bipartisan proposal for managed care reforms, and the AAFP welcomed the plan.
The proposal would allow patients to sue their health plans but would cap patients' civil assessments (similar to punitive damages) at $5 million. The cap is a new feature; most of the proposal resembles legislation the House passed last year, introduced by Reps. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., and John Dingell, D-Mich.
A patients' bill of rights "is clearly a priority for the people of this country," said AAFP President Roberts. "Family physicians know the tough choices many of our patients face when health plan accountants make medical decisions for them. That's why we think it is critical that America put patients and doctors back in charge of health care."
Tobacco control
A bipartisan group of senators are cosponsoring a bill to give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products and marketing.
"We are far beyond the question of whether tobacco is a drug: It is," said Roberts in a Feb. 7 statement supporting the bill. "Nicotine, a key ingredient in tobacco products, is addictive. Like other substances of abuse, it should be regulated by the proper authority. The FDA should be given that authority."
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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