FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Suzy DeFrancis (202) 973-3610
Renae Wagner
(202 973-1376
GANSKE’S MANAGED CARE REFORM ACT –
A KENNEDY-DINGELL CLONE?
Statement by The Health Benefits Coalition
Washington, DC, February 11, 1999 –Rep. Greg Ganske’s Managed Care Reform Act looks a lot like the failed Patients’ Bill of Rights Act he co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. John Dingell in the last Congress. While Ganske claims his bill is different, members of Congress should not be fooled. It contains nearly all of the same costly, big government mandates that are in the Kennedy-Dingell bill and it still puts health plans and the employers that sponsor them at risk of new lawsuits that could bankrupt many businesses. Fifty-seven percent of small businesses say they would drop coverage if exposed to these types of malpractice-like lawsuits, according to a 1998 survey.
Rep. Ganske describes his new bill as an affordable, common sense approach to health care reform. In fact, it is neither. It increases health care costs at a time when families and businesses are facing the biggest hike in health care costs in seven years. It forces millions of Americans into the ranks of the uninsured at a time when the number of uninsured is 43 million and rising. And it opens the door to new lawsuits that benefit wealthy trial lawyers, without helping patients get the care they need when they need it. That makes no sense, and it takes away an important "right"—the right to affordable, quality health care.
Rep. Ganske claims his bill will "protect" patients, but it actually will leave millions of Americans "unprotected" by driving up health care costs and forcing them to lose their health care coverage entirely. Rep. Ganske’s prescription for health care reform is a cure worse than the disease.
