Senate Passes Patients' Rights Bill

W A S H I N G T O N, June 29, 2001 -- The Senate voted tonight to approve a sweeping patients' bill of rights that would create new legal protections for people enrolled in managed care plans, including the right to sue their HMOs and insurance companies.

"The Senate has taken a giant step forward in order to protect doctors and patients that for far too long have been exploited by the managed-care industry," Sen. Edward, Kennedy, D-Mass., said moments after the so-called Bipartisan Patient Protection Act was passed on a 59-36 vote.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Kennedy and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and John Edwards, D-N.C., would guarantee some 190 million Americans expanded access to medical specialists, emergency room care and prescription drugs not on a health plan's approved list. It would also give patients the right to appeal a decision to deny treatment to an independent review board.

"I think you are going to see a significant change of attitude and performance by health plans," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a nonprofit health-care consumers' advocacy group.

Opponents of the measure say permitting patients to sue their health maintenance organizations or insurance companies in state court and allowing them to recover virtually unlimited damages would force health plans to raise their rates, which could in turn swell the ranks of the uninsured.

"It drives up the costs of physician, hospital and health plan premiums," said Karen Ignani, president of the American Association of Health Plans. "That all gets played into the cost that consumers pay, ultimately."

President Bush has promised to veto the legislation.

Republican Challenges Rejected

Today's vote capped two weeks of contentious debate and legislative maneuvering on the Senate floor. The bill was Senate Democrats' top priority and its passage is a major political victory for Democratic leaders, who assumed control of the narrowly divided chamber earlier this month, after Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., bolted the GOP, depriving Republicans of their majority.

Senate Republicans fought to limit lawsuits to federal court, impose caps on punitive damages and bar workers from suing their employers, but Democrats beat back numerous GOP efforts to fundamentally reshape the bill.

"My prediction is this bill would increase the number of uninsured by millions and cost billions and billions of dollars," said Minority Whip Don Nickles, D-Okla.

Supporters of the legislation rallied tonight to defeat a measure that would have effectively shelved the bill altogether, replacing it with a competing Republican-backed proposal co-sponsored by Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., John Breaux, D-La., and Jeffords.

Moderate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle did, however, broker compromises on a handful of key issues.

After Republicans argued small and mid-sized businesses would simply abandon their health care benefits rather than face the threat of costly lawsuits by disgruntled employees, Democrats agreed to a measure allowing employers to shield themselves from liability by appointing an outside decision-maker.

The Senate also approved compromise measures to allow state health-care laws to remain in place as long as they are in "substantial compliance" with new federal regulations, to require patients to exhaust an appeals process before suing their health plans, unless they have injuries that would worsen during the independent review, and to limit attorneys fees in managed-care lawsuits.

White House Renews Veto Threat

Those changes, however, were not enough to satisfy Bush, who has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill.

"Why should we set up a proposal that's going to encourage litigation?" Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said at a news conference on Capitol Hill prior to the vote. "He will veto it and we'll end up with nothing."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., had vowed to keep the Senate in session until the bill was passed, canceling next week's Independence Day recess if necessary.

The proposal now heads to the Republican-led House for consideration..

Already looking ahead to the battle in that chamber, Bush this week threw his support behind a rival plan being pushed by House GOP leaders, calling it a "good compromise." Though Senate Republicans and the president had pushed to limit lawsuits only to federal court, the House bill would allow patients to sue their health plans in state court, albeit only under certain very limited circumstances.

Proponents of the Democratic bill remained hopeful Bush would eventually back down from his promise to veto it.

"We hope the president will … recognize this is an issue the American people feel strongly about and we're optimistic that he'll sign this legislation if it's put on his desk," Edwards told reporters.

An ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll released earlier this month showed 44 percent of the public favors legislation that would make it easier for patients to sue their health plans, while 49 percent oppose such a bill, fearing it would increase the cost of health insurance too much.