Third Rail

Bipartisan Bills Introduced in Congress To Enable Funding of Special Health Courts | PRNewswire | 5.24.07

WASHINGTON, May 24 /PRNewswire/ — Common Good, the nonpartisan legal reform coalition, announced today that identical bipartisan bills have been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives that would enable states to create special health courts on a pilot project basis. Advancing an idea developed by Common Good and researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the bills authorize funding for states to create alternative administrative health systems, including health courts, on a pilot project basis.

Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act

Senate Sponsors:

• Michael Enzi (R-WY)
• Max Baucus (D-MT)

House Sponsors:

• Jim Cooper (D-TN)
• Mac Thornberry (R-TX)

Coalition:

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
• American Osteopathic Association
• Consumers Advancing Patient Safety
• The Joint Commission
• National Committee for Quality Assurance
• Progressive Policy Institute

It will be very interesting to see where this goes with the coming change in administrations and elections in 2008. Will healthcare, finally, be front and center in the political debates? Or will it just be the third rail once again.