wfn.org | United Methodist lawmakers among sponsors of patients' bill

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 20, 2001	News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-21-71B{283}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The Patients' Bill of Rights would put the power to make
medical decisions back where it belongs, in the hands of health care
providers, said lawmakers rallying June 19 in support of the legislation.

The rally, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, heralded the bill's
introduction in the Senate by John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy
(D-Mass.) and in the House by Greg Ganske (R-Iowa) and John Dingell
(D-Mich.).

Two United Methodist co-sponsors, Sen. John R. Edwards (D-N.C.) and Rep.
Charles Norwood (R-Ga.), also spoke at the June 19 rally. Another United
Methodist, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who signed on to the bill
in February, attended the rally but was not a speaker.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) introduced the legislation as
a compromise among colleagues who do not agree on everything but do agree on
the need for a strong patients' bill of rights. "In fact, we've been willing
to compromise on virtually every issue, but the one thing we can't
compromise on are the strong protections Americans need," he said.

Critics have claimed that the bill will increase insurance costs, he said,
"but the truth is, the average employee will see their cost go up by only
$1.20 a month. That's a small price to pay for a health plan that must
provide the care you need as opposed to the ones that might."

Daschle said he would not let the Senate leave Washington until the bill is
passed. The bill is S. 1052 in the Senate and H.R. 526 in the House of
Representatives. 

"Our bill puts Americans in charge of their own health care," McCain
declared. "Physicians using the best medical data must make the medical
decisions, not insurance companies and not trial lawyers." The bill protects
employers from liability, and he offered to negotiate and discuss any issue
opponents have with this bill, he said.

Kennedy said the bill has the strong support of "virtually every doctors',
nurses' and patients' organization in this country." A list provided at the
event included more than 450 organizations, such as the American Academy of
Family Physicians, the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, the
United Methodist-related Board of Child Care in Baltimore, the Jane Addams
Hull House Association and the Methodist Children's Home in Texas. 

"We know that millions of dollars are being spent to distort and
misrepresent this issue, and that is because the HMOs know they can't win
when it's an issue on the merits," Kennedy said.

Harkin also criticized the health maintenance organizations. "Today marks
the beginning of the end of HMO bureaucrats making medical decisions based
on profits instead of patients," he said. "Americans don't want doctors
doing their taxes. And they don't want accountants deciding what health care
they're going to get."

Dingell noted that a person who gets killed or injured because of a car
manufacturer's defect has the right to sue, but a patient does not have the
same right to sue an HMO for a defect in judgment that results in death or
disability.

"Now is the time to take health care decisions away from HMO and insurance
company bureaucrats and put them where they belong, with families, doctors
and nurses," Edwards said.

The bipartisan bill offers real patient protection, with rights that are
enforceable, he said.

"We need a patients' bill of rights, not a patients' bill of suggestions,"
he said, gathering applause from the hundreds at the rally. He noted that
the words "Equal Justice Under Law" are chiseled on the face of the Supreme
Court building, across the street from the rally. The proposed legislation
is "about equal justice for doctors, patients and nurses," he said. The HMOs
and insurance companies want to keep the special privileged status they have
had for years, he said.

"We're going to enact a law that treats HMOs and insurance companies the
same way all of us and everybody in America is treated," Edwards asserted.
"We're going to give patients and doctors and nurses equal treatment under
the law."

Norwood, a dentist, said the work that the Senate was beginning that day
should have been completed long ago but was prevented by politics. "Our only
hope for success is not just bipartisanship, but nonpartisanship," he
observed. 

"I urge the Senate to give full consideration to any amendment that might
lessen our president's real concern over unintended consequences of this
legislation," he said. "If a single loophole survives through which a
patient can be harmed with impunity, we have failed our mission."

At the same time, only a few yards away - and out of the hot sun -- another
group held a press conference against the bill. Led by Sen. Don Nickles
(R-Okla.), the group represented the business community. Speakers there
expressed particular concerns about cost and liability.
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United Methodist News Service
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