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CNN Live At Daybreak

Patients Bill of Rights May Come Up for Vote Today

Aired June 29, 2001 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, things are coming to a head now. A patients bill of rights stands a chance of getting a Senate vote today. But the measure may force a presidential veto.

Congressional correspondent Kate Snow is on the Hill for us this morning.

Kate, why the threat of a presidential veto on this and what's the bill going to look like to -- that might incur a veto?

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Brian.

Well, there are a few main points. Let me start with what's agreed upon. And that is most of the members -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- agree that patients in HMOs need some protections, more than they have right now. They agree they need access to emergency room care, for example. They need access to specialists, to clinical trials. That much they agree on.

Where it gets sticky, though, is: What about the right to sue your HMO if you have a problem with your HMO? Both sides agree there should be some right to sue, but they disagree about how much.

And that's where President Bush comes in. He disagrees with what the Democrats want to do. The bill that is pending right now in the Senate would allow people to sue in both federal and state courts. And it would limit damages meant to punish the HMO in federal courts to $5 million.

Republicans say that's too high; that's too much latitude. It would allow too many lawsuits to be filed. They're going to try to change that later today, Brian. But so far they haven't been very successful, Republicans, in forcing through changes. They have been more successful in finding compromises.

NELSON: Kate, a couple of questions now: If this increases the exposure for business, the legal exposure, won't this force some small businesses to sort of drop coverage for their employees?

SNOW: That was the argument earlier this week, Brian, coming from Republicans. They were very concerned about small businesses. Let me tell you what happened yesterday, though. And that is, as I just mentioned, there have been some compromises. And that's where they have been able to work together. Yesterday, they compromised on that very issue of employer liability. Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, along with three others, two Democrats and another Republican. They got together and they formed a compromise, which basically shields employers and small businesses -- that's what it's meant to do -- from liability.

It says, if you are a small business and you're worried, you can designate an outside decision maker to take responsibility for your health care decisions and for the liability for those health care decisions.

NELSON: But by doing so, won't this increase the exposure of the managed-care companies? And won't they start to squawk and scream and maybe go out of business?

SNOW: Well, that's -- that's an argument as well. Again, it was a compromise. Republicans have argued that they are concerned about that. They are concerned about prices inflating.

They -- the whole time that they've been debating this bill, they have argued that prices would go up because of this bill. On the other side, Democrats will tell you: Look, prices need to go up a little bit in order to provide patients protection.

They say that patients that have HMOs need to have rights and recourse to potentially sue those HMOs if there is a problem."

NELSON: Thanks for the insights, Kate Snow in Washington -- appreciate it.

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