Word: gop
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...Given that the idea is likely to rankle those on the right, it's surprising to find it was effectively ordered by the GOP -- as part of a health insurance law passed by Congress in 1996. Now they can rest easy as the White House goes through the messy and contentious process of actually trying to implement it. As for the tracking number, there are two proposals: a) Create a new code for everyone based on your date and location of birth and hire hundreds of bureaucrats to dish them out; and b) use your Social Security number. No prizes...
Should you have the right to sue your HMO or health plan over improper medical treatment? Yes, say the Democrats, because without the right to litigate there's no way for patients to hold health plans accountable for their decisions. No, says the GOP -- the right to sue would simply divert money away from health care and into the pockets of wealthy trial lawyers. "The issue of litigation is the primary difference between the parties' competing health plan reform bills," says TIME Washington correspondent Karen Tumulty. "This being an election year, they're going to fight this one down...
...GOP's bill, formulated in response to an earlier White House-backed package, reflects a substantial turnabout from Republican opposition to the reforms proposed by President Clinton last fall. "Republicans running for reelection were finding that their party's apparent support of the insurance companies was working against them," says Tumulty. Both parties now agree on reforms that would speed access to specialist care, make HMOs pay for unnecessary emergency room treatment when it was reasonable for the patient to assume there was a crisis, give patients access to more information on treatment options, and subject disputed coverage decisions...
...Lott announced Tuesday that Senate investigations have found that the transfer of satellite technology to China aided that country's military. But the GOP may be reaching by trying to link the supply of technology designed to improve the safety of Chinese rockets to alleged interference by Beijing in U.S. politics. As Branegan notes, "If it's in America's commercial interests to launch American satellites on Chinese rockets -- as the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations all believed -- then it's clearly in America's interests to protect its $200 million satellites by making sure those rockets don't blow...
President Clinton met Friday with a key Hong Kong democrat, but it was Washington Republicans who may have made the President's day. GOP leaders, who had begun preparing a deluge of anti-China legislation in the run-up to Clinton's departure, now concede that the President's trip has been a success, and it's failed to produce the election fodder they had anticipated. Newt Gingrich, who had earlier called for the trip's postponement, admitted Clinton's triumph and approved of a closer U.S.-China relationship through gritted teeth. "It's less expensive to be friends than...