FCNL: Legislative Action Message
FCNL
FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE
APRIL 16, 1998
The following are updates and action suggestions from
the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) for
the coming week. These messages focus on selected
legislation which Congress is considering now, and
suggest some points that you may wish to make in your
communications with Congress. These messages are
intended as a supplement to other FCNL materials and do
not reflect FCNL's complete policy position on any
issue, nor do they include all pertinent facts on any
topic.
This update was prepared and uploaded at 4:00 pm on
Thursday, April 16. It includes information and action
suggestions on MEDICARE, LOW-INCOME HOUSING, andLANDMINES.
MEDICARE: Legislation introduced by Sen. Kyl (AZ) and
Rep. Archer (TX) (Medicare Beneficiary Freedom to
Contract Act of 1997, S 1194/HR 2784) would continue the
effort to remove important patient protections in the
Medicare program. Prior to the 1996 Balanced Budget
Agreement (BBA), physicians providing Medicare-covered
services were required to adhere to Medicare fee
schedules. The BBA permits physicians to contract
privately with patients for Medicare-covered services
and thus charge fees in excess of Medicare fee
schedules. However, the BBA requires such physicians to
agree not to file any Medicare claims for a period of
two years.
The Kyl/Archer legislation would eliminate the two-year
bar to participation in Medicare for physicians who
contract privately. This will allow physicians to pick
and choose which patients and which services they will
bill Medicare for and which they will charge patients
higher fees. This change would have several important
consequences. (1) If all physicians in a community
insist on contracting privately for some or all
services, those services could be priced beyond the
reach of poor beneficiaries. The Medicare card and
Medigap policies could become worthless. (2) A
patient whose physician has been accepting Medicare
reimbursement might, during an acute illness, be
informed that a necessary test or treatment will cost
more than Medicare pays.
Both bills have many co-sponsors and enjoy the support
of the American Medical Association. These bills could
easily be attached as amendments to other legislation.
A recent, non-binding "sense of the Senate" resolution
has demonstrated a very narrow majority favoring the Kyl
bill.
ACTION: Please contact your senators, in particular. If
they are co-sponsors, urge them to withdraw their
support. If they have not signed on, thank them for
standing up for elderly persons, particularly those who
are poor. Please urge them to oppose publically the
Kyl/Archer bill.
LOW-INCOME HOUSING: On March 31, the House, by a narrow
212-208 vote, passed a $2.9 billion supplemental
appropriations bill. Included in the allocations are
nearly $1.8 billion to pay for military operations in
the Persian Gulf and Bosnia and $575 million for
disaster relief. The House bill included offsetting
budget cuts (not required for supplemental
appropriations bills). Although more than 60% of the
supplemental appropriations will be used to fund
military operations, lawmakers decided that 100% of the
offsets should come from domestic programs. The single
largest chunk of money ($2.2 billion) is scheduled to
come from the housing program, specifically, the Section
8 vouchers. If this offset is approved in conference,
it will mean a loss of 400,000 vouchers to assist low-
income families with rent payments. Over the past
several years, cuts from HUD have funded $1.5 billion in
supplemental appropriations.
ACTION: The House bill (HR 3579) now must go to
conference with the Senate version (S 1768) which does
not include offsets. Please contact your senators.
Urge them to oppose any offsets from domestic programs
in the supplemental appropriations bill. Please contact
the President. Urge him to veto a supplemental
appropriations bill that includes domestic program
offsets. White House Comment Desk: 202-456-1111.
President William J. Clinton, The White House,
Washington, DC 20500.
LANDMINES: May 16 will mark the second anniversary of
President Clinton's announcement that the U.S. would
seek an international ban on anti-personnel landmines "as
soon as possible." Yet, two years later, the U.S. still
refuses to give up its landmines, while over 120
countries have, by signing the Ottawa Treaty, already
committed to banning the production, transfer,
stockpiling, and use of these indiscriminate weapons.
The 40 ratifications needed for entry into force of the
treaty could come as soon as this July. "As soon as
possible" is now.
ACTION: Please write or call President Clinton before
May 16. Ask him to make good on his commitment of two
years ago to complete an international landmines ban "as
soon as possible" by signing the Ottawa Treaty. Also,
please contact your members of Congress. Ask them to
contact President Clinton (phone number and address,
above) and urge him to sign the Ottawa Treaty. If they
were co-sponsors of the Landmine Elimination Act of
1997, thank them and ask them to continue their
leadership on this issue.
This concludes our message. For further information,
please contact FCNL directly to request the FCNL
Washington Newsletter and other background documents
(see address below). Not all of these documents are
available electronically at present.
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