Patients' Bill of Rights

“ The next day, the House of Representatives, based on our agreement, passed a good bill to give patients the care they deserve without encouraging frivolous lawsuits. The legislation protects every patient in all 50 states when a health plan wrongly denies or delays needed care. ”

“ They would much rather get quick adjudication and settlement through an independent review board. The problem the President has with the approach of some of the democrats on patient bill of rights is that they will immediately try to get people into court, where the first thing somebody has to do is pay for and hire a lawyer. And health care should not have to be administered through lawyers. Health care, in the President's opinion, should be administered through health care professionals and providers. ”

“ So, too, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a name that does not accurately describe the finished product because this is a law that will make health care less affordable rather than more, and it is a law that subjects patients to a lot of harm rather than protecting them. ”

“ If private hospitals misrepresent facts or compromise with political evils for the sake of a gift of public money, their offense is more heinous because of their exalted purpose. The test of a physician's worth to his patients and to his community is not what he is or what he has learned, and not what his profession might be, but what happens to patient and to community. Human welfare demands that the medical profession be judged by what it does, not by what it might do if it made the best possible use of its knowledge or its opportunity. ”

“ An innocent person's constitutional right to be free from unwanted medical treatment is thereby categorically limited to those patients who had the foresight to make an unambiguous statement of their wishes while competent. The Court's decision affords no protection to children, to young people who are victims of unexpected accidents or illnesses, or to the countless thousands of elderly persons who either fail to decide, or fail to explain, how they want to be treated if they should experience a similar fate. ”

“ Or do you want to make somebody go out and hire a lawyer and take months, if not years, to go to court and, therefore, never receive the medical treatment necessary? That's one of the problems, that when you change America's health care system into a system that invites the trial lawyers in, in such a deep and profound way as the Senate bill currently does, you risk denying people the health care they need. ”

“ Respondents base their claim on the traditional right to medical care and counsel, subject to the limiting conditions of informed, responsible choice when death is imminent, conditions that support a strong analogy to rights of care in other situations in which medical counsel and assistance have been available as a matter of course. There can be no stronger claim to a physician's assistance than at the time when death is imminent, a moral judgment implied by the State's own recognition of the legitimacy of medical procedures necessarily hastening the moment of impending death. ”

“ Requiring a competent adult to endure such procedures against her will burdens the patient's liberty, dignity, and freedom to determine the course of her own treatment. Accordingly, the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause must protect, if it protects anything, an individual's deeply personal decision to reject medical treatment, including the artificial delivery of food and water. ”

“ This experience demonstrates clearly that Congress and the States both understood the Act to grant health care providers enforceable rights both before and after repeal of the ill-fated waiver requirement. ”

“ The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The principle that a competent person has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in refusing unwanted medical treatment may be inferred from our prior decisions. ”

“ This standard in s. 251 (4) became entrenched at least as a minimum when the "right to life, liberty and security of the person" was enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at s. 7.
"Security of the person" within the meaning of s. 7 of the Charter must include a right of access to medical treatment for a condition representing a danger to life or health without fear of criminal sanction. ”

“ As a part of that basic obligation, the State and its agents have an affirmative duty to provide reasonable access to medical care, to provide competent, diligent medical personnel, and to ensure that prescribed care is in fact delivered. For denial of medical care is surely not part of the punishment which civilized nations may impose for crime. Of course, not every instance of improper health care violates the Eighth Amendment. Like the rest of us, prisoners must take the risk that a competent, diligent physician will make an error. ”

“ It will say the patient protections should apply to all Americans; patient protections should be comprehensive; that patients should have a rapid medical review process for denials of care; the review process should ensure that doctors make medical decisions and patients receive care in a timely manner; federal remedies should be expanded to hold health plans accountable; and patient protection legislation should encourage, not discourage, employers to offer health care. ”

“ In order to preserve the freedom of all residents of Alabama to provide for their own health care, a law or rule shall not compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system. ”