Happy Holidays, New York.

Smack in the middle of the Holiday Season, outgoing President George W. Bush has given us a present worse than coal.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule today that allows health care workers to deny patients vital care, information and services without the patient even knowing.

The rule will take effect in 30 days, and will be difficult to reverse.

Unfortunately, this regulation is not just another crazy Bush regulation that New Yorkers, thanks to our local laws, are safe from. In fact this regulation could quite possibly overturn many of our State's hard-won healthcare victories, meaning that:

• Rape victims would not be provided with Emergency Contraception in a timely manner;
• Pharmacies could discriminate or delay access to birth control; and
• Health insurance plans that cover prescription drugs would not also have to cover birth control.

Thanks to this midnight regulation, New Yorkers can no longer go to the Emergency Room and trust that a provider's sole motivation is to give the best care available. Instead health care workers from the doctor down to those behind the check-in desk are free to withhold information about any procedure they find distasteful, without even letting you know that they are doing so.

The terms of this regulation are so vague that its possibilities are staggering. Janitors could refuse to clean rooms that have had sterilizations performed in them. And yes, birth control really could be considered abortion.

Bush wanted to leave a powerful legacy, and he's done it. In one stroke of the pen, he's managed to undermine the trust between patient and provider.

Obama may reverse this rule, and by all means let him and your congressperson know that you think he should. But until then, you'd better hope that Santa doesn't have a moral objection to your Christmas list.

Joan Malin is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of New York City.

Comments

[Rogan]

If you think health care providers aren't ALREADY keeping key information from patients, for the purpose of keeping costs down, on a staggering scale, you're naive.

[sandbird]

Anyone wishing more info on this issue, google Mike Leavitt's blog: I have read his statements and a couple hundred of the comments. Most of the public comments regarding this rule fall in one of two categories. One group of commentors pleads with Secretary Leavitt to not effectively reclassify routine birth control (and, in the bargain, hormonal treatment of disorders such as endometriosis) as abortion. The other group thanks him and pleads with him to protect practitioners from being forced to practice health care that goes against their conscience.
This regulation can be interpreted as classifying the birth control pill, as well as other methods of birth control, as abortion, in that if you are a health care provider and you believe the Pill = abortion, you now do not have to provide it.
There are already other legal safeguards to guarantee that a health care provider does not have to participate in an actual abortion in any way.
This regulation will result in many woman conceiving an unwanted child, and consequently obtaining an abortion.
This regulation will decrease access to care for women who need hormone therapy for non-reprod­uctive-rel­ated diseases such as endometriosis.
As a physician myself, I would remind other practitioners that the patient comes first. The patient does not come after the patient's potentially or actually fertilized ovum. The patient does not come after your conscience. If your conscience conflicts with the best interest of the patient, you should not be a health care practitioner.