Word: hmos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...taxes last month and education last week were easy compared to passing a bill that gives patients more clout with their health maintenance organizations. The stakes are high for both sides, which have important constituencies to satisfy. Republicans don't want to upset big business and HMOs by raising healthcare prices while Democrats want their friends, the trial lawyers, to have the right tools to sue over bad care. With the Senate now under Democratic control, this is the first test for Majority Leader Tom Daschle to press an issue that's been a winning one for his party...
...other hand, you have the Democrats, who are traditionally supported by trial lawyers, and who believe patients should be free to take their HMOs to court...
...federal court. If you?re a multinational company and you?re trying to keep track of every state law, it?s too complicated. You want a sweeping federal statute that covers every patient in every state. Democrats, on the other hand, want to allow patients to sue their HMOs in state and federal court - a provision believed to bolster patients? rights...
...nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the Kennedy-McCain bill would raise premiums by about $100 per year. The Frist version would raise them about $60. This appears to be a largely symbolic difference, but lobbyists for HMOs insist that $40 would exclude many Americans from coverage. What are the HMOs really afraid...
...they have to put in place to avoid massive judgments. So all the measures they?ve put in place to streamline medical processes will have to be peeled back and restructured completely. Restructuring, of course, means more regulations and more red tape, which increases the cost of business for HMOs. They?re also worried businesses will drop coverage because they won?t be able to afford the premiums they?ll be forced to raise to keep...