Uh-Oh, Indeed!
Don’t swap a real patients’ rights bill for an imposter that protects the insurance industry.
That’s what the International said in the pamphlet at left to alert members to the efforts of the Right Wing to derail the real Patients’ Bill of Rights with a watered-down version. Despite tough lobbying on Capitol Hill and pressure exerted by members like you, the long-sought goal of reform has not yet been realized.
Opponents of real reform, with the aid of President Bush, succeeded in limiting patients’ rights to sue their medical insurers, pushing through legislation that should be called an HMO’s Bill of Rights.
AFSCME has been working hard to thwart GOP leaders and their well-financed insurance industry allies. We want to prevent them from swapping a real patients’ rights bill — one that covers everyone with strong consumer protections — for an imposter that actually protects the insurance industry when it wrongly delays or denies medical treatment.
SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY. To intensify that pressure, AFSCME has mailed out nearly a half-million pamphlets like the one shown. It urges support for legislation that covers all Americans, provides strong protections for patients and workers, and holds insurance companies "legally accountable if injuries result from the denial or delay of coverage for medical procedures."
As the House of Representatives voted on the bill in early August, a coalition headed by AFSCME and the League of Women Voters placed radio ads in the districts of 16 wavering Republicans and Democrats. The ads urged them to support the real patients’ rights bill (H.R. 2563) championed by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.).
Under H.R. 2563, patients could have held insurance companies legally accountable for their harmful actions. The right to sue insurance companies is important: They must be made to think twice before rendering health care decisions based on their bottom line. But GOP leaders, President Bush and their insurance industry allies pushed through a weakened bill that makes it difficult for patients to successfully sue HMOs, and limits pain-and-suffering and punitive awards to $1.5 million — far below the $5 million cap in the Dingell bill.
"HMOs that make bad medical decisions should be treated no differently than any other wrongdoer," Dingell said during debate on the House floor. "And when they engage in the practice of medicine, they should be treated the same as doctors. But they seek special treatment, an exemption from meaningful litigation and, indeed, an exemption from responsibility."
PATIENT SECURITY. A month earlier, at a Capitol Hill rally, AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee rejected the GOP’s insincere attempt to offer meaningful managed-care reform. "All patients deserve the security of knowing that if their managed care plan makes a wrong decision — one that causes injury or death — they can do something about it," he said. "America’s workers have waited five years for real patients’ rights legislation. We can’t wait any longer. We won’t wait any longer."
The fight is far from over. Lawmakers will continue to wrangle with the issue as they attempt to reconcile House and Senate versions. We can make the difference!
The time for a real Patients’ Bill of Rights is right now. Please help by calling your senators and representative to urge them to pass a stronger and more enforceable bill than the one the House approved. Such legislation will hold insurance companies accountable when they harm patients by denying proper care. The House-passed version, backed by insurance companies and HMOs, does not fill the role of a Patients’ Bill of Rights; it only masquerades as one.
