Orlando, Fla. — President Bush turned thumbs-down Wednesday on legislation in Congress that would allow wronged patients to sue their HMOs for millions of dollars. "I want to sign a patients' bill of rights this year, but I will not sign a bad one," he said.
Along with gentle jokes about Vice President Dick Cheney's heart condition, Bush used a speech to a cardiologists' convention to lay out his conditions for any bill on the question of safeguarding patient health in an era of cost-controlled HMO care.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush jokes with his brother as the president stepped off Air Force One in Orlando, Fla. The president spoke Wednesday about health care.
He rejected a bill by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that would allow patients to collect up to $5 million in punitive damages and unlimited "pain and suffering" damages. Such provisions would encourage frivolous litigation and "drive up insurance premiums for everyone," Bush said. "To make sure health care coverage remains affordable, I will insist any federal bill have reasonable caps on damage awards."
On Capitol Hill, Kennedy said Bush's suggestion "fails to protect people. It is the people against the special interests" of insurance companies, health maintenance organizations and other large corporations. Kennedy said he and his colleagues would proceed with their legislation nevertheless.
"For five long weeks we have waited for the president to work with us. And today all we get in effect is a veto message on a real patients' bill of rights. This is not the way to pass bipartisan legislation," he said.
Aides said Bush intended to signal that he endorses rival efforts by Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., James Jeffords, R-Vt., and John Breaux, D-La.
The trio, which has not yet introduced its legislation, proposes to prohibit punitive damages altogether and cap noneconomic damages the so-called "pain and suffering" damages at $500,000. All patient lawsuits over the denial or delay of medical treatment would be limited to federal courts. State courts traditionally award larger damages.
Bush said that keeping the issue in federal courts will simplify things for employers who do business in more than one state. "I will not support a federal law that subjects employers to new multiple lawsuits in 50 different states."
Twice he reminded his long-distance audience on Capitol Hill that, as Texas governor, he vetoed patient legislation that did not meet his standards.
Nothing currently pending in Congress would win his signature, Bush said. "So, enacting a patients' bill of rights this year is going to require some different thinking, a new approach based on sound principles."
Those principles, he said, are:
Everyone must be covered, "all patients in all private health plans."
Insurers must be forced to pay for reasonable emergency room treatments, specialists, obstetrician-gynecologists, pediatricians, and participation "in potentially life-saving clinical trials when standard treatment is not effective."
Patients must be given "fair and immediate review" by a panel of physicians if an insurer denies care.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.