Constitutional Law

Bush Administration Health Care Regulation Sparks Pushback

Federal and state officials and the American Medical Association are ramping up opposition to a Bush administration proposed regulation that could seriously hamstring heal care providers. The proposed regulation would allow physicians, nurses and other health care workers to opt out of providing procedures that offend their “religious beliefs and moral convictions,” The New York Times reported. The regulation would also “prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstore employees with religious or moral objections to ‘assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity’ financed by the Department of Health and Human Resources,” reported the Times. Members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are protesting the Bush regulation as unnecessary and a threat to civil liberties. The newspaper noted that the EEOC’s complaints about the rule follow criticisms about it from physicians, pharmacists, hospital and state attorneys general. According to the article, the administration intends to finalize the regulation in a matter of days and it could take months for the new administration to reverse it.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).