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Assembly rejects old alcohol law

Monday, April 18, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

The Assembly voted Friday to strike down a law that has been in place since the 1950s that allows insurance companies to deny coverage of injuries that people sustain when they are drunk.

Assembly Bill 63 will solve a dilemma that emergency room physicians often face when they want to test a patient for substances but are afraid the patient's insurance company won't pay for the bill, said the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.

But the irony is that 80 percent of patients in the ER are there for some reason relating to alcohol, meaning hospitals aren't able to track patients as well as they should, Leslie said.

The bill also recognizes that alcoholism is a disease, something that was not acknowledged in the 1950s, Leslie said.

Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, a physician, was the only member to vote against the bill.

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