House Approves Patients’ Rights Bill

The bill passed 226 to 203, with no Republicans voting against the bill and five Democrats voting for it.

After the vote, victorious Representatives shouted “Norwood, Norwood,” in support of their colleague who had single-handedly brokered the winning deal with the president.

The two men had met privately at the White House on Wednesday and agreed that patients would be allowed to sue their HMOs in state court, but a federal cap would limit damages. Punitive damages and monies for pain and suffering would be limited to $1.5 million.

Norwood said he made the deal out of political necessity since the president would not sign a bill without a limit to damages.

“Like it or not we have to work with this president, who has to sign this bill,” Norwood said after the vote. The Georgia Senator is known as a champion on the issue and had previously lobbied to remove price caps.

A victory for President Bush

In a ceremony in the Rose Garden today, Bush said the legislation “brings us an important step closer to ensuring that patients get the care they need and that HMOs are held accountable.”

The vote was one in a series of victories for President Bush this week; the House passed his energy plan and the Senate confirmed two of his nominees.

Legislators begin their August recess today, but they will face the issue again in conference between the Senate and the House upon their return. There they will try to reconcile differences between the House bill and a bill that the Senate passed earlier in the summer.

Both bills ensure that patients have access to emergency room care, medical specialists and that women may visit obstetricians and gynecologists without a referral.

The Senate bill, however, favors the patient in court cases.

Other patients’ rights legislation has died in conference in recent years.