Talk:Patients' rights

In my opinion this article is very non-NPOV. "The recent passage of the McCain-Edwards-Kennedy Patients' Bill of Rights was a critical step in the path to providing comprehensive protections to all Americans in health plans..." and "...only the Senate-passed measure would provide patients with adequate means to enforce their rights..." (emphasis mine) are both highly debatable statements; many, many Americans would disagree that either version has teeth. TBH it sounds like a press release.

I have also just tried to locate further information on this subject, and except for the Senate Democrats' site that is linked to, I am unable to do so. The Library of Congress' Thomas search, for finding bills from the House of Representatives and the Senate, turns up nothing, even when just searching for bills sponsered by the three Senators listed on the Democrat's site (John McCain, Edward Kennedy, and John Edwards). Can you please provide some sort of reference that anything ever actually passed? There has been much debate but nothing has ever passed as far as I am aware.

As far as I can tell, this is about a Senate Bill that was never enacted into law, specifically "S1052". See [1]. It's been held at the desk since 11/19/2002. Lots of things get called "Patients' Bill of Rights", but I'm not sure there's any U.S. legislation with that actual title - which if true surely should be reflected in the article??? There are at present some 92 bills on the subject of patients' rights being considered in Congress: most will never become law. - Nunh-huh 06:13, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I don't know about NPOV, but this sentence "This bill was passed by the US Senate by a vote of 59-36 in 2001 and has been waiting for a final vote by the US Senate (after addition of Amendments by the US House of Representatives) since 2002" is just wrong. If it didn't get passed by the end of that Congress (which would have been in late 2002), it didn't get passed and a whole new bill would have to go through the legislative process.SHJohnson (talk) 16:40, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Under the complaint section it calls for independent and internal reviews. I this something that the patient is supposed to pay for or the Hospital? These rights are very unclear and do nothing but blow a bunch of smoke. These right need to be accompanied by laws to protect the patient not to confuse citizens. Unbelievable or should I say believable that our government only exist to pacify its own people they represent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.189.172.172 (talk) 14:04, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 contains a patients's bill of rights at section 501. It's not mentioned in this article. —Shelley V. Adams ‹blame
credit› 15:49, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

here are the current issues with the subject:

• Patient's rights typically refers to various rights advocates feel that medical/hospital patients should have when getting treatment from a doctor or at a hospital/medical clinic. Thus we should address generally universally held views on what "patient's rights" the average person should have. Some of the rights would include a) the right to consent to all medical treatment and to turn down said treatment except in situation where the patient is a danger to themselves or others and even then the exceptions should be limited. and b) the right to be informed about your condition and all possible medical treatments.
• We should also include areas where the policy/rights have changed over the years such as being able refuse medical treatment, limiting, in the case of adults (and in some limited cases, children), when a person's parents can consent to treatment and thus override their own wishes.
• There has been a debate in recent years over whether the pendulum has swung to far towards the patient's right to refuse treatment thus putting society at greater risk the when forced treatment and incarceration in a mental hospital was much easier.
• There is the debate over whether patient's should have the right to use so-called alternative medications/treatments or even long since debunked pseudo-scientific treatments.
• In America, becuase we still use health insurance as a key way we pay for healthcare for many, we also have the issue of patient's rights as they relate to health insurance which differs somewhat from the greater issue of medical patient rights as a whole. Thus it would be useful to differentiate these different right issue as they pertain to America (or any other country that still relies on health insurance in some form (other then single-payer).
• There is a related issue that many would argue is a part of patient's rights, and that is the issue of a right to healthcare in general, something most developed countries accept, with the notable exception of the U.S., and this something likely should be addressed in some form in this article.

--108.239.8.149 (talk) 19:24, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

Would it be helpful to separate the historical information regarding Patient's Rights from the current state of Patient's Rights in the United States?Perrone.h (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:33, 30 September 2018 (UTC)