Washington (H24N). Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore challenged health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to change their policies toward women receiving breast cancer treatment.

"I’m calling for tough new patients’ rights legislation to make sure women get the best health care, not just the cheapest – by making sure women diagnosed with breast cancer can get a second opinion," Gore said. "Let’s put an end to the HMO penalties and incentives that encourage doctors and nurses to give women substandard care. That’s wrong – and it ought to be against the law."

Gore’s plans, revealed during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, go far beyond a bill proposed in Congress, the Patients Bill of Rights, which details rights for both sexes while receiving benefits under managed care providers.

His proposals are a direct endorsement of legislation currently on Capitol Hill submitted by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, which would require HMOs and other managed care plans to provide all enrolled women quality breast cancer treatment. Specifically, the bill mandates that HMOs cover minimum hospital stays for breast cancer treatments, including mastectomies, lumpectomies and lymph node dissections. The bill also ensures women the right to a second opinion when it comes to the best course of treatment after breast cancer diagnosis.

Gore told the crowd at Las Vegas University that "big, impersonal institutions" should not be able to deny patients the right to the best health care available.

"The choice should be in your hands – not the HMO’s, not the insurance companies’, not the powerful forces’, that are so often standing in the way," he said.

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush and his campaign tried to take the lead from Gore on this issue by touting legislation Bush has enacted while serving in the Lone Star state.

"Governor Bush signed into law one of the strongest patient protection laws in the nation for women," Dan Bartlett, a Bush spokesman, said in a news release.

Bush did sign a Texas law in 1997 requiring HMOs to allow women direct access to their obstetric and gynecologic doctors, as well as a minimum of two-day hospital stays following child birth and mastectomies.

Gore has tried to distinguish himself from Bush with an appeal directed at what his campaign calls "the working class."

In doing so, the Gore campaign has demonized large corporations like the drug industry, in his call for prescription drug benefits for seniors, and the health insurance industry, with his promotion of an "enforceable" Patients Bill of Rights.

Bush, on the other hand, in his push to attract the middle class, has published "Real Plans for Real People: Blueprint for the Middle Class." Proposals contained within the plan include revamping the education system, saving Social Security, providing tax cuts and improving Medicare and health care services.

Both campaigns are vigorously courting the middle class, especially its women, who tend to vote more often and account for more of the population. With a just over a month left before the Nov. 7 election, recent polls show Bush trailing Gore by a substantial margin, especially in that voting bloc.

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