Patient rights bill going nowhere this year, GOP lawmakers say

Of course not.. we've got a war to fight dumbasses!


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/06/22/national1946EDT0747.DTL&type=printable

Patient rights bill going nowhere this year, GOP lawmakers say
- MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2004


(06-22) 16:46 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Leading Republicans said Tuesday that Congress is unlikely to pass 
patient rights legislation this year, despite lawmakers' pledges to 
revive it following a Supreme Court ruling limiting lawsuits against HMOs.

Some Democrats said the issue could be potent in the presidential 
campaign. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a co-author of the bill, said he 
learned in his campaign for the Democratic nomination, "It's still an 
enormously important issue. It's real out there on Main Street all 
across the country." Edwards, a trial lawyer, is frequently mentioned as 
vice presidential running mate.

Sen. John Kerry, the likely Democratic nominee, said the legislation 
"has bipartisan support, and it could become law tomorrow if the Bush 
administration was not standing in the way. "

However, the chances that the Republican-led House will take up a 
national patients' protection bill this year are "zero," said Rep. John 
Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce 
Committee.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, chided advocates of a bill 
that would permit patients to sue their HMOs in state courts, where 
juries are often generous to sympathetic victims. "They are more 
interested in lining the pockets of trial lawyers than giving access to 
health care to the American people," DeLay said.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that patients may pursue 
claims against their HMOs only in federal courts, where awards are 
capped at the cost of medical services the HMO would not cover.

Three years ago, patient rights legislation foundered in a dispute over 
a patient's right to sue. President Bush and other Republicans opposed 
state court lawsuits, where the dollar judgments tend to be higher, and 
wanted to send all suits against HMOs to federal court.

The president agreed to support a bill under which cases could still go 
to state courts but under federal rules. But the House and the Senate, 
then under Democratic control, failed to settle their differences.

A day after the ruling, the White House sidestepped questions about it. 
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush supported "meaningful 
legal remedies for patients who have been harmed by managed care 
companies' denial of medical care."

He blamed Democrats for Congress' failure in 2001 to pass the bill.

A bipartisan group of senators said they would work against the odds to 
pass a bill this year. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., co-author of the 
Senate bill, said he hopes to reopen negotiations with the administration.

McCain said patients' rights should include "the right to remedy 
insurance disputes in the courts if all other means are exhausted."

He appeared at a news conference with Democrats Edwards, Edward Kennedy 
of Massachusetts, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North 
Dakota, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Graham said he wants the debate to steer clear of presidential politics. 
"I hope it doesn't get into Bush, bad, Kerry, good," Graham said. 
"Because if it gets into that arena, the public loses."

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