This legislation reveals once again that government will always be decades behind cutting-edge healthcare, and beholden to special interests as well. Action Alert!
After a year of discussions and negotiation, Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Fred Upton (R-MI), together with three other co-sponsors, finally released a preliminary draft of their 21st Century Cures bill.
It’s clear that the authors intend this bill to be landmark legislation to propel healthcare innovation into a new era. In a video launching their effort, Rep. DeGette said that “America can be—it must be—the healthcare innovation capitol of the world.” In the hearing that the Energy and Commerce Committee held on the draft, proponents invoked President Kennedy’s plan to go to the moon in a description of the boldness and scope of their vision.
Will this bill be the harbinger of a new era in healthcare in the United States? So far, it doesn’t look like it.
The bill is still in draft form, and significant portions of the text are still being negotiated. We had a number of criticisms of older drafts of the bill, and the good news is that a number of them were addressed in the latest draft.