Health care bill

[Guest guest]

Here is an almost complete copy of of a newsletter I get from

www.defendyourprivacy.com (who are neither Republican nor Democrat,

but are Libertarian) I cut out some addresses and misc. stuff not

affecting the content:

Effort to repeal medical privacy rule fails as House refuses to vote

on HJR 38

Dear Friends:

Here's a brief update on our campaign to stop the new HHS medical

privacy regulation. Despite more than 61,000 e-mail lobbying messages,

13 co-sponsors, and a last-minute flurry of phone calls to Capitol

Hill, privacy advocates have fallen short in an effort to derail

the federal government's so-called medical privacy regulation.

On June 15, a 60-day window for Congress to " veto " the regulation

slammed shut, with no action taken on HJR 38, a bill filed by

Congressman Ron (R-TX) that would have repealed the new

regulation.

As a result, the Health & Human Services regulation, which will force

doctors to turn their patients' confidential medical records over to

the government, has officially gone into effect. The regulation was

drafted by the Clinton administrationand was quietly implemented in

April, 2001, by President W. Bush, despite the growing public

outcry against it.

During the week of June 11, privacy advocates mounted a last-ditch

effort to repeal the regulation by flooding their congressional

representatives with thousands of phone calls demanding a vote on HJR

38. But House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, refused to bring the

measure to a vote, ending any chance of killing the HHS regulation.

Capitol Hill sources said the House schedule was " very light " the week

of June 15, and " a vote could easily have been scheduled. Hastert just

didn't want to. "

" Privacy advocates made a tremendous effort, " said Libertarian Party

National Director Steve Dasbach, we've lost what we always knew would

be an uphill fight. The problem was that Democrats supported the

regulation because it was Bill Clinton's baby, and Republicans

supported the regulation because W. Bush endorsed it. It was

classic Washington DC bipartisanship: The politicians won, and the

American public -- and privacy -- lost. "

Since the DefendYourPrivacy.com campaign was launched in mid-April,

61,999 people signed a petition opposing the regulation and 13

Congressional co-sponsors signed on in support of HJR 38. But that

wasn't enough to tip the balance against a measure supported by the

leadership of both parties.

What happens now? Is there any way protect medical privacy in the

future?

It's possible that a member of Congress could write legislation to

repeal the regulation, but such a bill would unlikely to pass, for

several reasons.

First, it would have to go through the full committeeprocess, unlike

HJR 38, which would have immediately become law if the House and

Senate approved it by June 15. That process would give politicians

plenty of opportunity to amend it or water it down.

Second, the bill would have to get through the Senate Health,

Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, whichis nowchaired by Ted

Kennedy, one of the biggest supporters of the HHS regulation.

Third, even if such a bill got through both houses of Congress,

there's no reason to think that President Bush would sign it. After

all, he's the one who ordered his HHS Secretary, Tommy , to

implement the rule in the first place.

So the bad news is that Americans are stuck with thisregulation for

the foreseeable future. But that does *not* mean that we will sit idly

by when the government other privacy violations. These HHS rules are a

setback for privacy, but allowing similar rules to be imposed in the

would be a disaster. We will not surrender in the privacy simply

because we have lost one battle.

Our supporters have successfully fought other privacy invasions in the

past -- such as the FDIC's Know Your Customer bank spying law and

legislation that would have outlawed certain websites -- and we will

do so again. So please stay posted, and let's keep up the fight for

privacy.

Again, thank you for helping us fight the HHS regulation!

Sincerely,

Steve Dasbach

National Director

Libertarian Party

To make a contribution to help us continue to operate this site,

please visit http://www.lp.org/action/contribute.html#privacy

For a free information packet about the Libertarian Party, which

sponsors the DefendYourPrivacy.com, visit

http://www.lp.org/action/info.html