Just to update yesterday’s post about the Supreme Court rejecting state lawsuits against HMOs, I wanted to mention that congressional GOP leaders are determined to make sure patients aren’t empowered, at least this year.
Because existing law prohibits patients from seeking damages against HMOs when they refuse to treat something that ends up causing injuries, Dems want to rewrite the law (ERISA) and expand patients’ rights. The House GOP announced yesterday that we’ll have to keep waiting.
[T]he 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.
The White House, meanwhile, is a little nervous about this.
A day after the ruling, the White House sidestepped questions about it. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr. Bush supported “meaningful legal remedies for patients who have been harmed by managed care companies’ denial of medical care.”
Sure, as long as those remedies include absolute protection for HMOS against any and all responsibility, Bush’s position is clear. In fact, all three of his positions, which contradict one another, make the president’s intentions fairly obvious.
The House GOP may be certain that a Patients’ Bill of Rights isn’t going anywhere, but the Senate is showing signs of life.
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.
Mr. 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 [John] Edwards, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
It’s a long shot, but it’s a fight worth having.
Just as an aside, I wonder if this controversy will do anything to boost Edwards’ standing as a potential running mate. He co-authored the PBOR bill with McCain and has taken a high-profile role in emphasizing this issue this week. The AP report’s spin had to be welcome news in Edwards’ office:
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.”
Sounds like the kind of guy who can effectively hammer this point home over the next four months.