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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Todd Irons (202) 973-2927 Suzy DeFrancis
(202) 973-3610
Statement by the Health Benefits Coalition on Vice President
Gore’s Call for a "Real" Patients’ Bill of Rights
Washington, DC, July 11, 2000 — Health care reform should not
mean higher costs and more uninsured. Al Gore’s "real" patients’ bill of
rights will cost 1.2 million Americans their health insurance*, and by
putting employers at risk of lawsuits and possible bankruptcy** it
punishes working men and women while rewarding Gore’s key campaign
contributors – the trial lawyers. They ought to call it a lawyers’ right
to bill, not a patients’ bill of rights.
# # #
The Health Benefits Coalition is a broad-based
organization representing three million employers providing health care
coverage to more than 100 million employees and families. The coalition
believes affordable, quality health care is best achieved through broader
coverage, choice and competition in the marketplace – not government
mandates.
* Sources: Congressional Budget Office and Lewin Group. A CBO analysis
of the Dingell-Norwood bill (H.R. 2990) found the bill would increase
health care premiums 4.1 percent. According to a study by the Lewin Group,
every 1 percent increase in health care costs results in 300,000
uninsured. Therefore, Dingell-Norwood would result in 1.2 million
additional uninsured.
** Source: Legal analyses of the Dingell-Norwood bill by Schnader
Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP,
and William Schiffbauer, Esq., confirm the legislation would subject
employers who sponsor health benefits for their employees to expanded
health care liability .
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