Word: hmos
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...shouldn't have been surprised. Bush, like Kennedy, wants more protections for patients, including more access to emergency rooms, specialty care and clinical trials. But he wants no part of provisions in the Kennedy bill that would allow aggrieved patients to sue HMOs in state court and win jury awards of up to $5 million. Conservative Republicans in Congress were appalled at the thought of a Kennedy-Bush compromise on the legislation, but they needn't have worried. Bush wasn't eager to strike any deal that would burnish the reputation of McCain, his bitter opponent in the Republican presidential...
...Room of the West Wing on the morning of June 21, she listened with pursed lips as Nick Calio, the White House legislative director, insisted that President Bush should threaten to veto the patients' bill of rights--legislation aimed at protecting people from the bureaucratic whims of profit-driven HMOs. The bill is badly flawed, Calio argued, and the V word is the only way to force Congress to make it more to Bush's liking. Hughes jumped into the fray. "Once we say veto," she replied, "that's all anyone's going to hear." To Hughes, the counselor responsible...
...White House meeting last Tuesday. With Democrats in control of the Senate and moderate Republicans lining up with them, passage of a generous patients'-rights bill was inevitable. Pressed by Hughes and others, Bush threw his support behind a House alternative giving patients a limited right to sue HMOs in state court--something he had long opposed. "This legislation...will make a difference in people's lives," he enthused at a photo op staged by Hughes. By Friday night, when the Senate passed its bill 59-36, the veto threat was still the official position, but White House aides were...
...patient's bill of rights he prefers just became tougher for President Bush because he strung along his friend, G.O.P. Congressman Charlie Norwood. When Democrat John Edwards introduced such a bill in the Senate last February, the White House opposed it largely because it let patients sue their HMOs for up to $5 million. The Administration got Norwood to hold off sponsoring a nearly identical bill in the House, promising to strike a compromise. Imagine his surprise when he found that Bush aides had secretly written a bill more to their liking with G.O.P. Senator Bill Frist, limiting jury awards...
...look forward to a full debate on this bill and will fight to ensure doctors are making medical decisions, not HMOs or trial lawyers. I believe that we will pass a Patients' Bill of Rights this year that meets the president's principles, provides patients the protections they need and keeps health care costs affordable...