NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Aug. 3, 2001

The mostly Democrat supporters of the so-called "patients' bill of rights" - which even supporters admit will make health insurance less affordable - that passed the Senate in June threatened to modify or kill the House measure.

The 226-203 vote solidified a tense week for the president. He had extensively lobbied about a dozen House Republicans who insisted on supporting the Democrat-backed lawyer-friendly version of the bill, which included larger caps on judgments and expedited litigation processes, opposed by Bush.

Though supporters of the legislation style it as pro-consumer, opponents say it is anything but and dub it a "lawyers' bill of delights." CNN reported Thursday that it would raise the cost of health insurance more than 4 percent, hurting the very people it is alleged to help.

The original bill - introduced by Reps. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., John Dingell, D-Mich., and Greg Ganske, R-Iowa - appeared to have enough votes to easily pass the House, until Wednesday evening, when Bush and Norwood reached an agreement on compromise language that bridges the differences between their positions. This agreement cost Norwood the support of his former allies, but it also solidified support for the bill among the Republican rank-and-file, which handily supplied the eventual margin of victory.

The president issued a statement immediately after the vote saying: "Today's action brings us an important step closer to ensuring that patients get the care they need and that HMOs are held accountable.

"As this bill heads to the conference committee, I remain committed to extending the hand of cooperation to all who share a commitment to achieving real results for better health care for every American," he said.

Bush had pushed for the new language - which limits non-economic and punitive damages and moves some kinds of lawsuits from state to federal court - to limit lawsuits against insurers in a lobbying blitz over the past two weeks. He had vowed to veto the original version of Dingell-Ganske unless changes similar to those in the amendment were made.

Under the Norwood-Bush amendment, non-economic and punitive damages would be capped at $1.5 million each - far less than the $5 million suggested by the earlier bill, but triple Bush's original position of $500,000. Though patients could sue HMOs in state court, the amendment would require the courts to follow the more stringent federal lawsuit guidelines.

These provisions were called unacceptable by all of the original sponsors except Norwood, and by the Democrats, who had provided the bulk of the support for the original bill. Besides concerns about the provisions in the amendment, Democrats expressed frustration that the deal cut with the president occurred at the last minute, leaving little time to examine the actual legislative language.

Dingell took to the floor just before the vote to assail the amendment's provisions that limit bring lawsuits in state court for serious injuries or illness that allegedly result from irresponsible coverage decisions.

"If an American citizen cannot go to court to get relief in that situation, the value of his citizenship has been shrunk," said Dingell, the longest-serving House member, in his 24th term. "And it will be shrunk if the Norwood amendment passes."

Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., said that passage of the amendment protected HMOs at the expense of patients.

"We are giving HMOs and health insurance companies, who make many of the important health care decisions in our lives today, a different standard of accountability than doctors who make other decisions in our lives," he said. "We are treating HMOs and health insurance companies in a preferential way, as compared to doctors and nurses and hospitals that are held responsible for their medical decisions."

However, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told CNN: "If you have to go sue, you have that as a last alternative, but we want to get people into health care. People don't want to go to court, a lawyer's office, to get into a doctor's office."

The House added language to expand the medical savings account programs, which encourage tax-free savings accounts to spend on health care. Democrats mostly opposed the measure, claiming that the accounts mostly benefit the wealthy and do little to help working families.

Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D-N.C. - who had joined Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in getting the Senate to accept a bill in June - told reporters before the final vote that they would attempt to "improve" the bill in a conference committee planned to reconcile the House and Senate versions. Barring this, they plan to use the committee to kill these versions of the bill and plan to amend unrelated House bills to include their version of the lawsuit bill.

"The more we see of this, the less we like it," said Edwards, a wealthy trial lawyer.

McCain held out hope that the differences could be resolved without political fighting.

"While important compromises have been made by President Bush and Congressman Norwood, I'm concerned that this agreement preempts state laws, provides preferential treatment to HMOs and fails to provide adequate redress with injured patients," he said. "I look forward to working with my colleagues in conference to bridge the differences between the House and Senate bills and provide patients with the protections they deserve as early as possible."

Kennedy said: "This issue is not going away. They might have had a victory this afternoon, but it will be a temporary one."

Because senators can generally add any amendment to almost any kind of bill - as opposed to the House's strict rules governing what kinds of amendments can be added to bills - Kennedy's threat is a serious one. With the backing of Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., supporters of the Senate version could force the House Republicans to defeat the bill at every turn, or force Bush to veto bills he would like to sign, except for the HMO amendments.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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