Bush to Endorse Limited Patient Protections Today; Move May Derail ‘More Sweeping, Bipartisan’ Measure

President Bush on March 21 will endorse a patients' bill of rights that would give patients the right to sue their health plans but would limit lawsuits and jury awards, USA Today reports. The president, in a speech at a American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando, will attempt to "boost [the] prospects" for patients' rights legislation proposed by Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and John Breaux (D-La.), according to advisers (Welch/Keen, USA Today, 3/21). The senators' proposal would guarantee patients access to specialists, emergency care and hospital stays. Regarding lawsuits, the legislation would require patients to exhaust an independent external review process before suing health plans in court. The bill would place a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages and allow unlimited economic damages (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/13). In addition, all lawsuits would be heard in federal court, which "generally" awards smaller settlements than state courts (USA Today, 3/21). This measure aligns in several ways with the "principles" that Bush outlined for a patients' bill of rights last month, when he stated that lawsuits should go only through federal court and that damages awarded by juries should be subject to "reasonable caps" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/8). The Breaux-Frist bill contrasts with a proposal from Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Edwards (D-N.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), that offers more lenient right-to-sue provisions. Under that proposal, called the "Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001 (S 283)," patients could sue HMOs in state court for denial of benefits or quality-of-care issues and in federal court for non-quality of care issues, such as violations of health plan contracts. The bill would cap civil assessments awarded in federal court at $5 million, but state courts could award as much as state laws allow (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/13). Supporting the president in his opposition to the Kennedy-McCain-Edwards proposal, Republican congressional leaders indicated that they prefer the more moderate right-to- sue aspects of the Breaux-Frist proposal. Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said, "We don't want to do anything that will expand the number of uninsured." House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) added, "The Democrats have always put the right-to-sue ahead of the right-to-review" (USA Today, 3/21).