Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
Associated Builders and Contractors
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
Senate passed S. 1052, to amend the Public Health Service Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage, after taking action on the proposed amendments.Public Citizen Congress Watch
Patients' Bill of Rights: Final Passage.
This vote was on final passage of the Patients' Bill of Rights sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), John Edwards (D-N.C.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). This bill would allow patients to hold HMOs accountable in court for the damages caused by their failure to provide necessary medical treatment.
Passed.NAACP
S. 1052 / Patients’ Bill of Rights / Final Passage.
Final passage of the McCain / Edwards / Kennedy bill to provide federal protections, such as access to specialty and emergency room care, and allow patients to appeal an HMO’s decision on coverage and treatment. It would also allow patients to sue health insurers in state courts over quality of care claims and at the federal level over administrative or non-medical coverage disputes. The Patients’ Bill of Rights legislation passed the Senate.AFL-CIO
PATIENTS’ BILL OF RIGHTS—S. 1052.
Quality, affordable and accessible health care should be available to all working families. The Patients’Bill of Rights the Senate considered guarantees access to specialty and emergency room care and allows patients to appeal coverage and treatment decisions by their health plan to an independent panel. It also allows patients to sue their health insurer if they suffer harm. The bill would not allow lawsuits against multiemployer (Taft-Hartley) health plans over nonmedical decisions. The bill passed.Americans for Democratic Action
S 1052. Patients’ Bill of Rights.
Passage of the bill to provide federal patient protections and allow patients to appeal a health maintenance organization’s (HMO) decision on coverage and treatment. It also would allow patients to sue health insurers in state courts over quality-of-care claims and, at the federal level, over administrative or non-medical coverage disputes. Passed.U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Energy Exploration Amendment.
The U.S. Chamber strongly opposed an effort to amend the Interior Appropriations bill to bar new energy development in a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The Senate defeated this measure. America's reliance on foreign sources of energy is growing. Today, oil imports represent 57 percent of what we consume and are expected to reach 64 percent by 2020. And despite America's significant natural gas reserves, U.S. gas imports may increase to 57 percent by 2020. A cornerstone of any energy policy must be to expand production of domestic energy supplies. However, there are many barriers to increasing domestic production, including moratoria on new oil and gas development off the east and west coasts, federal lands, and the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge. The Gulf of Mexico is the only location that contains significant potential energy reserves and is not currently off-limits to new production. This amendment would have cut off use of one of the last U.S. areas capable of producing significant domestic petroleum resources.
American Association of University Women
Managed Care Reform/Patients’ Rights.
AAUW supports meaningful managed care reform that will establish enforceable federal standards to assure a minimum level of quality and consumer protections for women and all Americans covered by private insurance. AAUW believes that the Senate-passed version of the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act (S 1052) will establish enforceable federal standards to assure a minimum level of quality and consumer protections for women and all Americans covered by private insurance. S 1052 would provide coverage for all 160 million privately insured Americans, direct OB/GYN access for women, greater access to potentially life-saving clinical trials, external review by medical experts of any benefit denials when decisions to withhold or limit care result in injury or death, and a patients’ right to sue in state court when subject to managed care abuses.
The Senate passed the act.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Health Care/Support Patients’ Bill of Rights.
The Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, sponsored by Sens. McCain (R-AZ) and Edwards (D-NC), amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to protect consumers in managed care plans from unfair practices by HMOs. Provisions include: access to emergency care and specialists; continuity of care when in the middle of treatment; a good, unbiased appeal process and right to external review; and the right to hold health plans accountable for their decisions, in court if necessary. The Senate passed the bill.Republican Liberty Caucus (Civil Liberty)
Patients Bill of Rights/passage.
National Federation of Independent Business
Patient Protection Act - Passage.
Sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.,
and John McCain, R-Ariz., the bill would
impose various health insurance mandates,
including which benefits must be provided by
health plans. The bill would also create new
rights to sue insurers and employers who
provide insurance in federal and state courts.
Economic and non-economic damages
would not be capped, and punitive damages
would be capped at $5 million.National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
The Senate passed S. 1052, to amend the Public Health Service Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage, after taking action on the proposed amendments.United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers
PEOPLE’S NEEDS.
The Senate voted for a Patients Rights bill (S1052) with bare-minimum legal rights for victims of health plan abuses. The House approved an even weaker version in August; both are likely to be combined for action in 2002.
National Hispanic Leadership
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act (Patients’ Bill of Rights), S.1052.
Sponsored by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Senator John Edwards (D-NC). The bill amends the Public Health Service Act and the Employer Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage. The bill would ensure, after a new external appeals process, patients’ access to state courts for cases regarding injury and death as well as access to federal courts for cases regarding gross negligence from HMOs, according to group members. Bill passed with amendments.International Union, UAW
Senate Approves Strong Patients’ Bill of Rights.
The UAW supported legislation to guarantee basic rights to all patients, including the ability to hold health plans accountable when they improperly deny care to patients. In the end the Senate passed a UAW-backed Patients’ Bill of Rights.American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
Final Passage of the Patients' Bill of Rights.
The Senate approved the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act (S. 1052), a comprehensive package of consumer protections. The bill would ensure such basic protections as access to emergency room treatment and to specialists when needed. The bill provides a review process that allows patients to appeal treatment denials by the health plan to an outside medical expert. It also would hold plans accountable when their denials for treatment injure or kill patients. Importantly, the bill would ensure that health care professionals are able to speak up for their patients when their care is jeopardized. AFSCME supported the legislation, which was passed by the Senate.Children's Defense Fund Action Council
Patient's Bill of Rights.
Passage of the bill would provide federal protections, such as access to specialty and emergency room care, and allow patients to appeal a health plan organization's decision on coverage and treatment. It also would allow patients to sue health insurers in state courts over quality-of-care claims and at the federal level over administrative or non-medical coverage disputes.
This bill would give patients, including children, enrolled in HMOs new legal remedies to ensure access to necessary medical care and to hold HMOs responsible for improper denials of care. It would provide new protections for children enrolled in HMOs that allows parents to designate a pediatrician as their child’s primary care doctor and required HMOs to include pediatric specialists in their networks. The pediatric provisions are similar to those included in the Act to Leave No Child Behind (H.R. 1990/S. 940).
Service Employees International Union
Patients' Bill of Rights (S.1052).
The Senate passed the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act. It was the first major piece of legislation to pass following the transfer of power from the Republicans to the Democrats. The bill applies to all individuals who have private health insurance, including local and state government employees. It would provide comprehensive patient protections, including whistleblower protection for health care workers, access to specialists, emergency room care, and clinical trials. It allows patients to appeal coverage and treatment decisions by their health plan to an external independent appeals panel. It also allows patients to sue their health insurer if they suffer harm as a result of treatment being withheld or denied. The bill passed.American Public Health Association
Patient protections - S. 1052, Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
A bill to provide federal protections,
such as access to
specialty care and emergency
room care, and
allow patients to appeal a
health maintenance organization’s
decision on coverage
and treatment.
Under the bill, patients
could seek damages from
their health plans in federal
or state courts
depending on the nature
of the decision) if harmed
by an insurer’s decision to
deny appropriate coverage
or treatment. Passed.
The bill
gained the support of
more than 800 public
health, consumer, patient
and provider groups as
the bill that best expands
patient access, protects
patients, holds insurance
plans accountable for
their decisions and provides
meaningful remedies
to patients in the
event of injury. Relevant
APHA policies: 9615, 9616, others.The National Breast Cancer Coalition
Protection of Patients in Private Health Plans.
NBCC supports passage of comprehensive legislation that would make quality health
care available and accessible to everyone. Our goal is a dynamic healthcare system that
recognizes quality, appropriately manages cost, and supports research.
Short of access to high quality health care for all women, we believe that breast cancer
patients in private health plans have fundamental rights including: coverage for routine
health costs associated with participation in clinical trials; the right to receive accurate
information about their health plans; access to the right providers; involvement in
treatment decisions that are based on good science; and confidentiality of their health
information.
We also believe that any patient protection bill must include a strong enforceable
mechanism with a right to sue in state and federal court. Under the current law, managed
care companies can only be held accountable for the cost of the benefit it should have
provided in the first place. This does no good if a patient has died, or if a patient has
suffered grave loss as a result of denial of care. While the debate over patient protections
should not be about lawsuits and remedies, it is essential that it be about how to ensure
that breast cancer patients, and all patients, are guaranteed access to the quality care they
need. If health plans comply with the law then those enforcement mechanisms will never
have to be used. As patients, we need to know that these mechanisms are in place for our
protectio.
The National Association of Social Workers
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act (Managed Care).
Passage of the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage.Bill passed. The bill offered the best set of protections for consumers as well as health and mental health practitioners. Itwould have improved patient access to care and allowed patients to hold health maintenance organizations (HMOs) accountable in court for the damages caused by their failure to provide necessary medical treatment.
Business and Professional Women/USA
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
The Senate approved passage of the Bi-Partisan Patient Protection Act.
This group supports legislation that would guarantee female patients access to their obstetrician-gynecologists without having to receive prior permission from their primary care physician, allow pregnant women to keep the same doctor temporarily, even if the physician is dropped from their health plan, and give all patients easier access to care and greater recourse, including an expanded right to sue, if they believe they have been improperly denied treatment.
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Patients’ Rights - Passage.
Passage of the bill that
would provide federal protections, such
as access to specialty and emergency
room care, and allow patients to appeal
a health plan organization’s decision on
coverage and treatment. It also would allow patients to sue health insurers in
state courts over quality-of-care claims
and at the federal level over administrative
or nonmedical coverage disputes.
Federal-level economic and noneconomic
damages would not be capped, and punitive
damages would be capped at $5 million.
State damages would be determined
by state law. The bill passed.Hadassah
Bipartisan Patient Protection Act.
The Senate passed to amend the Public Health Service Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to protect consumers in managed care plans and other health coverage, after taking action on the proposed amendments.