Patients’ Rights
* Elton Gallegly’s supporters are engaging in a bit of revisionist history when they claim he has worked to pass the patients’ bill of rights. In his political career, Gallegly has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the big insurance companies and HMOs. Perhaps that’s why in 1998 he voted against the patients’ bill of rights on two occasions. Only after drawing an outstanding Democratic opponent did Gallegly stick his finger into the political winds and cynically change his position.
In fact, Gallegly co-sponsored Newt Gingrich’s alternative to the patients’ bill of rights that would have protected insurance companies from being held liable when their decisions to deny care resulted in harm to a patient. The American Medical Assn. criticized that bill for doing little to address the real problems with HMOs.
If you want to see a real patients’ bill of rights enacted, vote for Michael Case for Congress.
PHILLIP S. BERMAN
Simi Valley
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