Patients' rights in the United States: From 'down-under' the situation seems upside-down

In June-July 2001, the US Senate debated and passed a 'patients' bill of rights'. While deemed 'bipartisan' legislation, this largely reflected the demands of the Democratic majority in the upper house. In August 2001, Congress then endorsed its own patients' rights legislation, but this more closely reflected the desires of the White House and Republican party. Attempts to establish a US patients' bill of rights have been laboured. For around five years, different proposals for patients' rights protections have moved between Senate and Congress.1 Each time their passage has been thwarted. This has been due to the peculiar nature of the US political system, designed to prohibit legislative enactment without considerable struggle and compromise, and the differing perceptions of the politicians and legislative coalitions whose holds on power have varied. Although both houses and the White House now concur that a patients' rights bill is needed, whether all three can agree to a common piece of legislation remains to be seen. Whatever the outcome, for someone from 'down-under', the situation in the US seems 'upside-down'.