By Kelly Levan
November 7, 2000

A ‘Yes’ vote on Ballot Question 5 is a vote for a “destructive new health care bureaucracy,” says Carla Howell, candidate for Senate.  A ‘No’ vote simply means the Patients' Rights and Health Care Reform Law that the state legislature passed last July will go into effect. Either way, the initiative is moot, says Howell. Massachusetts gets “destructive health care bureaucracies either way,” she says. 

In any case, patients will wrestle with bigger government, higher taxes, higher insurance rates, and have less medical privacy, according to the Libertarian. Either outcome “will put one more encyclopedia of health care regulations on the books,” she says, a body of law that “already takes up libraries full of volumes of encyclopedias of laws and regulations.”

Loss of Medical Privacy
She also attacks Senator Ted Kennedy’s federal "Patients' Bill of Rights,” claiming it “strips patients’ privacy; allows government bureaucrats, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, lawyers, and patients’ employers to look at personal medical records” without the knowledge or consent of the patient.  Under Kennedy’s plan, patients would not always have the right to see their own medical records, while bureaucrats have free reign, says Howell, who is challenging Kennedy for the U.S. Senate seat.

Prescription costs have rocketed, and a new drug may cost $500 million and take upwards of 12 years to come to market all because of FDA red tape, Howell adds. “The FDA blocks life-saving drugs from reaching those in need,” she says, arguing that whether Massachusetts votes for or against Question 5, they can look forward to even higher costs and even longer waits.

Both a “Yes” or “No” on Question 5 will result in giving Massachusetts state politicians more control over health care, taking control away from patients, in Howell’s view. “With Question 5, you can only lose.”
 
 

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