FP Report -- November 1998 AAFP, coalition help fend off legislation on 'lethal' drugs
In letter to New York Times
AAFP rebukes Congress
In a letter in the Oct. 19 New York Times, AAFP President Lanny Copeland, M.D., of Albany, Ga., attacked Congress's failure to pass tobacco control and managed care bills.
"This Congress voted down legislation that could have been a powerful tool in reducing tobacco use," said Copeland, citing a 73 percent increase in teen-age smoking since 1988.
Copeland also criticized Congress for failing to pass a proposal defining the standard covering emergency care, a requirement for internal/external appeals processes for beneficiaries and a mandate for full benefits disclosure to beneficiaries.
"Doctors take an oath to do no harm," said Copeland. "Perhaps Congress should do the same."
The Academy helped prevent congressional action last month on the Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act, H.R. 4006 and S. 2151.
The bills would have allowed the Drug Enforcement Agency to suspend the dispensing license of any physician who prescribed drugs for use in a suicide.
"The Academy is concerned that family physicians could be made liable for criminal penalties ... for prescribing needed pain medication to their terminally ill patients," said a letter from AAFP leaders to all members of Congress. The Academy called the bills "unacceptable intrusion" by the government into patient care.
AAFP key contacts -- members who lobby their lawmakers at AAFP's request -- and Academy staff and leaders asked Congress to defeat the bills. In addition, the Academy joined the Coalition to Improve Pain Management, opposing the bills.
"The House and Senate were surprised at the outpouring of consternation from the 58 groups in the coalition," said Michele Johnson, government relations representative in AAFP's Washington Office. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., introduced the bills. Nickles boiled down S. 2151 to a one-sentence amendment, tried to have it attached to a spending bill, but gave up as Congress neared adjournment last month.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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