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Health
Following are some
highlights of my activities on health issues.
Prescription
Drugs
I signed on as an
original cosponsor of the Medicare Guaranteed and Defined Rx Benefit
and Health Provider Relief Act, a bill that includes a prescription
drug benefit under the Medicare program.
Patients' Bill
of Rights Passes in the House
I have been working in Congress since
my election to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights that gives patients
and doctors control over health care decisions, not insurance
company accountants. I am pleased to report that the House of
Representatives passed a Patients' Bill of Rights on October 7,
1999, by a bipartisan vote of 275 to 151. The Senate passed a
different version of this bill and the conference committee to
resolve the differences between the two bills is has not yet
completed its work.
Patients' Bill of Rights
Speech
Listen to Inslee's
Floor Speech on Patients' Rights, 23 February 1999
Children's Health
Care
Congress and our
state government worked together to expand the Children's Health
Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover all children in the State of
Washington living at or below 250% of the poverty level.
Equity in Prescription
Contraception Coverage (EPICC)
Inslee is a cosponsor
of the bipartisan Equity in Prescription Coverage (EPICC)
Bill. This bill would require all private and government
health insurance plans that already cover prescription drugs to
cover prescription contraception and devices. Prescription
contraception is an integral component to basic health care.
Although most health insurance plans in the United States
cover prescription drugs in general, the vast majority do not
include equitable coverage for prescription contraceptive drugs and
devices. In the end, this lack of coverage is costly, both for
insurers who may have to pay for either maternity care or abortion,
and the families whose physical and financial well-being is
threatened by unintended pregnancy and lack of access to equitable
coverage for contraceptives. | 
