Judy Waxman: Should Hill Enact Managed-Care Reform?: Patients' Rights Activist Backs Democrats' Plan

Goldreich, Samuel, The Washington Times (Washington, DC)

Lobbyist Judy Waxman should have mourned last month, when leaders of Senate Republicans and Democrats declared an impasse on patients' rights legislation.

Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota accused each other of inflexibility on the rules of debate and warned that the Senate might not vote on the issue before adjourning for the year in October, when members will leave the Hill to campaign in their own states.

But Ms. Waxman, government-affairs director for Families USA, remains hopeful that public discontent with health maintenance organizations will force a vote. And she says Democrats will prevail in their effort to erect a new patient-protection system, including access to emergency care and specialists, external appeals and the right to sue health plans, many of which now are shielded from liability by the 1974 federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Ms. Waxman is counting on a vow made by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, to attach his patients' rights bill to every piece of legislation until there is a vote.

"It is possible, if you really are serious, to bring the …

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Publication information: Article title: Judy Waxman: Should Hill Enact Managed-Care Reform?: Patients' Rights Activist Backs Democrats' Plan. Contributors: Goldreich, Samuel - Author. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: August 10, 1998. Page number: 17. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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