The Patients Bill of Rights; or, How to Manufacture Legislation
Posted in Patrioticus by R Lee Wrights on September 24th, 2006 by J. Michael Bragg
“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
-Thomas Sowell
It sounds good on the surface in that our politicians have conveniently used “Bill of Rights” as its moniker. However, with a little closer scrutiny this provision designed to help Americans unhappy with the service they are receiving from their “managed care” plans is not so attractive. The bipartisan effort introduced by John McCain (R - Arizona), John Edwards (D-Trial Lawyers) and Ted Kennedy (D- Johnny Walker) has had a more watered down version than originally introduced pass in the Senate. Now I don’t know about you, but when they start talking about the B word (bipartisanship) it scares the dickens out of me! It seems that every time we get something bipartisan out of Congress, it’s time to grab the wallet (or your ankles) and start budgeting more and more money to Big Brother, all the while getting less and less to show for our “fair share.”
In fact, it could be said that this is more of an even scarier trend in our body politic today, namely that of “manufactured legislation.” You see these people have to justify their jobs and the lavish lifestyle and retirement that being a United States CONgressman gives them. So, how else can you do it but to take “care” of the little people who put you there? The truth is that most people are happy with their health insurance, despite the horrors that the likes of McCain, Edwards and Kennedy would like us to believe. In a recent Fox News Poll over 80 percent of those asked were fine with their plans. Moreover, this issue ranks very low in priority to most Americans.
If you were to ask anyone, “What is the most important issue our Government needs to address,” how many people on the street or your office would chime in, “A Patients Bill of Rights is what we need?” If someone had given that answer, they might as well have said, “We need more lawsuits and sleazy trial lawyers,” because that is exactly what we will get.
The provisions of this bill will allow patients to sue just about anybody involved in their health care process, from their HMO to their family doctor and about everybody in between and could result in disastrous consequences. To begin with, you could even sue your employer who provided you with benefits even if it were paid for entirely by them. Fortunately, some of this has been amendment to allow certain “exemptions,” but until this bill gets through the House we won’t know exactly what those are. However, what we do know is that faced with the prospect of higher legal expenses, health insurance and HMO premiums are sure to rise. This will certainly force some employers to make workers pay more for their insurance and even force some employers to drop coverage all together. If an employee could sue you over an insurance claim for insurance that YOU (as an employer) paid for, how long would you offer your employees these company benefits? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! What is even more disturbing is that McCain voted “yea” to allow employers to be sued in his bill, all the while on his website he said employers would be exempted.
Now, let me say that I am not against an HMO or insurance company being sued. In fact, if they violate the terms of their contract, i.e. the insurance policy or Health Maintenance Agreement, then sue the pants off of them. We do not need more government intrusion to do that. And, as Robert Moffit from The Heritage Foundation writes, “…there’s a better solution. It’s the same one that gave us 5-cents-a-minute long distance, $10 overnight shipping to anywhere in the world, and 59-cent cheeseburger day at McDonald’s: Free-market competition.”
Instead of lawsuits and higher premiums, give tax credits for personal insurance policies. That way if an employee did not like their company-offered plan, they would have other options. If Americans really had “free-market” choices, insurers would have to compete for business based on price, customer service, and quality of product. This alone solves the “problems” the Patients Bill of Rights is supposed to fix without tying up our courts in litigation and filling the pockets of trial lawyers (read: John Edwards).
But no, our benevolent leaders cannot do that. To allow the American people to be independent and responsible for themselves takes away their power. After all, if they are not here to catch us if we fall, what will we do? How will we ever survive?
Imagine, if you will, that you dreamed you were in an accident and woke up in the hospital. As you wake up you see the elderly Teddy Kennedy, multi-millionaire, former trial lawyer John Edwards and politically homeless John McCain standing by your bedside in white coats and stethoscopes. Would you want these guys as your doctors? No? Then why do you want them making decisions about your health care?
Originally published in Liberty For All June 6, 2001.
