Senate Democrats push for vote on patient's bill of rights

June 7, 2000
Web posted at: 6:38 PM EDT (2238 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Frustration over the continued stalemate on a bipartisan patients' rights bill has led Senate Democrats to bypass a House-Senate conference committee and push for a vote on the issue by late Thursday.

The move is being led by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), a key member of the conference committee that has been working for over three months to combine bills passed by the House and Senate that are aimed at strengthening the hands of patients in dealing with HMOs and other health plans.

Kennedy plans late Wednesday to introduce a Senate version of the Norwood-Dingell bill passed by the House last October as an amendment to the fiscal 2001 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.

The amendment will not include GOP-favored tax provisions contained in the House bill. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia), who is working with Kennedy on the bill and helping to recruit Senate Republicans to support the measure, was looking at including the tax provisions.

A spokesman for Kennedy said that the senator is convinced that the House-Senate conferees cannot resolve differences and agree to a compromise bill after months of work.

He said the purpose of this amendment is to put Republican senators who are running for re-election on the record on the popular issue. Democrats picked up the support of Republican Sens. Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) and Peter Fitzgerald (Illinois) last year.

Kennedy staff members said Wednesday that Republican Sen. John McCain (Arizona) also supports the Norwood-Dingell bill.

Republicans have cast doubt on whether the bill could pass and accused Democrats of trying to foil efforts to reach bipartisan agreement so they could tell voters this fall that Republicans refused to support patient protections.

The new bill would guarantee basic protections for all 161 million Americans in private health plans, establish a process for appealing HMO decisions and expand patients' rights to sue their health plans if they were harmed by decisions not to cover care.

The Senate passed a GOP-backed patients' rights bill last year that would provide many of the same protections but would not expand lawsuit rights, and applies to fewer people.

Kennedy and his allies believe they can muster up enough GOP support because some senators facing re-election in the fall want to address patients' frustrations with managed care organizations.

Meanwhile, committee Republicans criticized the plan to circumvent their own efforts to reach a compromise.

"Moving to the floor right now would be an act of extremely poor faith," said Gayle Osterberg, spokeswoman for Sen. Don Nickles,(R-Oklahoma), who serves as conference committee chairman. "If we are going to have a bipartisan agreement then folks should be supportive of the conference and have some patience."

The committee is hung up on three major issues -- whether patients should get expanded rights to sue, how a process for appealing HMO decisions should work and how many Americans should be covered by the federal protections.

Senate Republicans took a few steps toward the Democrats' position on lawsuits. They offered a proposal to allow limited lawsuits in federal court and ensure that Americans not covered by the federal law would be protected by state laws that were as strong as the federal rules.

Norwood and Kennedy said the proposal is riddled with loopholes.

CNN's Chris Black and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Wednesday, June 7, 2000

• Gore could feel the wrath of Gates' wallet after Microsoft ruling
  
• Senate Democrats push for vote on patient's bill of rights
  
• Tipper Gore says mental illness still stigmatized
  
• Union gives $1 million to House Democrats
  
• New Jersey's Corzine beats out former governor in Democratic primary
  
• Gore announces 'eldercare' plan to help families
  
• Stuart Rothenberg: Spotlight races of the week in Oklahoma, Utah
  
• Democrats unveil first ad in anticipated general election blitz
  
• Poll: N.Y. Senate race still a dead heat
  
• Bipartisan group of senators seek changes in death penalty procedures
  
• Medicare to expand clinical trial coverage
  
• Donor's ex-aide admits obstructing campaign finance investigation
  
• House GOP would earmark surplus to cut debt
  
• Federal election official blasts Internet voting
  

ARCHIVES