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Bill: Medical Standards Act of 2090
Details
Submitted by[?]: Deltarian Labor Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: February 2091
Description[?]:
| Private medical facilities and clinics shall be required to conform to minimum standards of care set down by the Minister for Health and Social Services. These standards of care shall ensure that patients of such facilities receive a high standard of medical care. The Minister for Health and Social Services will also establish minimum standards of care for the public healthcare system, and ensure that these minimum standards are met by all hospitals and clinics (both public and private) within a time frame of no less than one year and no greater than ten from the time of the enacting of this legislation, so as to allow adequate time to make the necessary changes. To assist in the creation of such medical standards, the Minister for Health and Social Services will appoint a panel of experts to Healthcare Standards and Regulations Commission. These experts will be drawn from the healthcare industry, and will include representatives from doctors and nurses associations, private healthcare company directors, public hospital directors, and other such healthcare experts. No less than half of the Healthcare Standards and Regulations Commission shall be registered medical doctors themselves, so as to ensure that the Commission's expertise is not only managerial, but practical. The Healthcare Standards and Regulations Commission shall be given access to the Department of Health and Social Services and its resources, and advise the Minister for Health and Social Services as to the standards which should be imposed on healthcare providers. The standards set in place by the Minister for Health and Social Services shall in no way impose a higher level of regulation upon private healthcare providers than upon public ones. Private healthcare providers are a valued part of Deltaria's healthcare system, and the Government encourages them to meet these standards and continue to play a role in providing quality healthcare and health insurance to Deltaria's citizens. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Health care policy.
Old value:: There is a public health care system, but private clinics are allowed.
Current: There is a free public health care system and a small number of private clinics, which are heavily regulated to ensure they treat their patients well and provide good care.
Proposed: There is a free public health care system and a small number of private clinics, which are heavily regulated to ensure they treat their patients well and provide good care.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 20:21:38, July 29, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | The SLP does not believe that the Minister for Health and Social Services should set regulatory standards for private sector hospitals just yet. Would it not be better to gives these hospirats the chance to engage in self-regulation first? The SLP proposes a parliamentary committee to monitor this self-regulation, aided by a committee of medical professionals, before any blanc cheque is given to the Health Ministry to engage in regulation. We fear that the Health Ministry does not have the required expertise, and are furthermore concerned that this proposal lead to decreasing acces to much-needed medical services which may be small-scale or charity-based and which may not always conform 100% to heavy regulations. |
| Date | 20:57:11, July 29, 2005 CET | From | Traditional Progressives | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | The TPP agrees with the SLP. Maybe we should investigate the option for self regulation before we attempt to regulate the industry. A parlimentary pannel sounds like a brilliant idea, and we should be ready to set safeguards in case this system begins to "go south." |
| Date | 05:30:26, July 30, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | The objection that this proposal will lead to decreasing access isn't on solid ground, since all citizens have access to public healthcare, and will continue to do so even if some private clinics are shut down for failure to comply with basic standards of quality of care. The idea that we are talking about "heavy regulations" is a nonsense one. We are talking about minimal standards to ensure that a patient is well cared for. |
| Date | 18:43:03, July 31, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | OOC: One problem which Panto and me are disagreeing on is whether in the current system healthcare is "free". It does not say so explicitly, and I would think it is not. I am therefore inclined to believe that this proposal would also make healthcare free, which we oppose. Panto is of the opinion that the fact that healthcare is public - considering the other options - already implies that it is free so it would not be a change. As it is not in the bill I will go with his interptetation, for now. IC: Why, then, does the Deltarian Labor Party oppose the idea of having the private healthcare institutions attempt self-regulation before imposing this bill? |
| Date | 03:33:11, August 01, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Labor encourages self-regulation, however, Labor recognises that patients have the right to a good quality of care. We are simply proposing minimal standards to guarantee a good standard of care for Deltaria's patients. If private institutions wish to impose more strenuous regulations upon themselves than that, Labor supports and applauds them. However, we believe it is important, and not unreasonable at all, to require healthcare providers to meet minimal standards of care. Why does the Social-Liberal Party oppose the idea of Deltaria's patients receiving a good quality of healthcare? |
| Date | 21:20:50, August 01, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | We DO want good quality healthcare, which is why we are prosposing to get this in a non-ideological way. Statist solutions are not always better. |
| Date | 02:36:34, August 02, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | It is the Social-Liberal Party which is proposing ideology here, not the Labor Party! Labor stands for quality healthcare. The Social-Liberals are doublespeaking and dissembling, preaching that the market will miraculously regulate itself on the issue of minimum standards of care. Labor believes in free enterprise as well, but Labor proposes that these private healthcare clinics should be competing with each other to provide higher standards of care, not to cut minimum standards of care as much as possible in the name of profit. Labor asks the Social-Liberal Party to get down off their ideological high horses and join us on the side of pragmatism, and of Deltaria's patients! |
| Date | 09:44:24, August 03, 2005 CET | From | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is in favour of capitalism and against market and business regulations, but sometimes they are needed. Like when the life of a person may depend on it. We believe that private clinics should abide by the same strict rules as hospitals in order to insure the best possible care for our people and to prevent blunders like cross infecting and post operation infections. |
| Date | 08:07:39, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Unless the bill receives further comment, it will be put to the vote June/July this year in order for voting to be completed before the next election. |
| Date | 09:25:49, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Imperial Freedom Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | At this time the Imperial Freedom Party cannot support this bill. We believe entirely private delivery of services is superior as it will provide for efficiency, and specialization of hospitals to capitalize on strengths. We should also encourage business to go into the health care sector in order to fill needs that the state may not necessarily have the resources nor the capability to immediately address. Historically, business has always been quicker to adapt to changing circumstances than government, and that flexibility is something we should make use of in this most crucial area. That said, we also believe that all Deltarians must have equal access to health care, thus we would support a government insurance plan that would provide for a full range of basic care to all citizens. Such a system would also be required to provide emergency care whenever needed. In this way, no Deltarian would have to fear going without life-saving medical care for lack of ability to pay. Further, we *do* support standards of care, to ensure that Deltaria has one of the best, if not *the* best, health care systems in the world, for any who need its services. OOC: This means we want the option 'Health care is private, but is paid for by the state for people with low incomes.' We can still do the regulation of standards with this option, as there is no differentiation in the options available between regulated and unregulated private delivery of health care. Thus, the objectives I presume Panto has with this bill would still be achieved. |
| Date | 09:59:48, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Labor isn't going to privatise Deltaria's public healthcare system for the sake of the Imperial Freedom Party's ideology. This isn't a debate on public healthcare in this country. This is a debate about medical standards. We are not selling Deltaria's public hospitals in order to impose regulations on private healthcare clinics. We don't see the point of expanding the debate. The issue is one of medical standards, and of medical standards only. |
| Date | 10:04:11, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Imperial Freedom Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Fair enough... we can save that debate for a future bill. We can support this bill provided that it contains language guaranteeing there would be no more regulation of private sector health care than there is of the public sector, and that the government *guarantees* the right of the private sector to continue to play a role in providing both services and insurance in Deltarian health care, and encourages it to do so. |
| Date | 10:05:05, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Deltarian Labor Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Labor agrees with the IFP's proposed guarantees. |
| Date | 10:07:14, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Imperial Freedom Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | Further, we also support the SLP's proposal of a commission being formed of medical specialists and professionals to aid the Health Ministry in setting the proposed standards for Deltarian healthcare. We would encourage also that such standards not be required immediately, but phased in over time to avoid overtaxing Ministry resources, and to provide a better product over the long term. |
| Date | 13:42:47, August 04, 2005 CET | From | Social-Liberal Party | To | Debating the Medical Standards Act of 2090 |
| Message | As this suggestion by our party has not been implemented, it would only be reasonably for the IFP to also oppose this bill. The SLP will vote against, but if the conservatives choose to support heavy regulations this bill will pass. For shame! |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 93 | |||||||
| no | Total Seats: 7 | |||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: In cases where players have failed to clearly and accurately reference their nation's RP laws in the "Bills under debate" section, Moderation will rule them invalid if a challenge is made to their validity. |
| Random quote: "The National Rifle Association says, 'Guns don't kill people; people kill people,' but I think the gun helps." - Eddie Izzard |