MO Patients' Rights Initiative

UPDATE: You can see the video from my speech on the Patients' Rights Initiative above.

If you like your health care providers, you should be able to keep them. That is the simple truth behind the recent announcement by Missourians United for Choice in Healthcare (MUCH). They will collect signatures to put the Patients’ Rights Initiative on the ballot next year. It would be a constitutional amendment that would give you the ability to keep the health care providers you like.

When you change insurance plans, either because your employer chooses a different plan or because you change jobs to an employer that offers a different plan, your doctor / hospital / care center may not be allowed to see patients under the new plan. Then you have to find a new provider. But under the Patients’ Rights Initiative, if your doctor is qualified and willing to accept the usual insurance payment, you would not have to change.

Similar laws are in place in 23 other states now, and healthcare prices are not higher in them. In particular, Arkansas, the most recent to pass such a law, has not seen such a rise, and some say competition has been enhanced there.

I know from experience that there is something therapeutic about the relationship between doctor and patient. That something has a value not calculated in simple dollars, and helps patients get well. When the relationship is broken and lost, patients can be hurt. Not all information is written in a medical record—some is stored in a doctor’s memory. That memory can make the difference between illness and wellness.

When patients are forced to see new doctors, finding one can take time, delaying needed care. A new provider may not be nearby, and a person may have to drive hours to see a new one, causing work to be missed. New doctors may want to order tests to confirm things, and may prefer different medicine regimens. The cost of these changes can be high, and changes can expose patients to new side effects, which can themselves have a treatment cost.

All these costs are not considered when companies look at just a lower provider discount. But the human costs are immeasurable—how much is the cost of forcing a cancer patient to see a new doctor, or of making a little girl with a chronic condition see a new pediatrician she doesn’t know?

The Patients’ Rights Initiative will most certainly be opposed by big insurance companies and big provider systems. They make a lot of money, and want to keep things the same as they are now. What does that tell you about their opposition—do you think they have your best interests at heart? Or will it hurt their bottom lines?

You know the answer. And you know that if you like your health care providers, you should be able to keep them.