Clinton Pushes Patients’ Bill of Rights

President Clinton on Friday renewed his call on the Republican-led Congress to enact a sweeping health care “patients’ bill of rights,” as he took an out-of-town break from monitoring the crisis in Yugoslavia.

Joined by more than a dozen House Democrats, the president told several hundred supporters at a rally in historic Memorial Hall here that the war in the Balkans is no excuse “to let this thing slide.”

The bill, which would give patients the right to sue their health plans for withholding treatment, is stalled in Congress.

House and Senate Democrats staged rallies in 32 states and launched a nationwide petition drive to renew public support.

In Los Angeles, Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman, local politicians and health care professionals spoke as about 50 people carried signs that read, “Put patients first.”

“Health care decisions belong back in the hands of patients and doctors, not insurance company administrators who are only watching the bottom line,” said Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk).

Steve Silen of Irvine clutched a picture of the 16-year-old daughter he lost to leukemia six months ago. He said that his daughter, Serenity, was misdiagnosed four times because her health maintenance organization was not willing to pay for a complete blood count.

“We saw a focus on money versus patient care,” he said. “Children deserve to live.”

Clinton made no effort to hide his frustration at the lack of progress on the legislation. “I’ve talked about this until I am blue in the face,” he said at one point.

But House Republicans immediately fired back, arguing that the Democratic bill would mean, as House GOP conference chairman J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma put it, “higher costs and more bureaucracy.”

Arguing that the Democratic bill would expose employers to malpractice liability for the actions of doctors they do not supervise, Watts said: “If employers faced medical malpractice liability, health care costs would skyrocket, pricing many employers, consumers and families out of the health care market altogether.”

Republican National Chairman Jim Nicholson argued: “When the trial lawyers say ‘Jump,’ President Clinton and the liberal Democrats ask, ‘How high?’ ”

The partisan exchange came as Congress prepared to return to session next week after a two-week recess.

Both parties want to enact consumer safeguards for patients enrolled in health maintenance organizations, affording them greater protection against HMO practices that stint on medical care to increase profits.

But the parties differ on specific approaches, especially over the right to appeal HMO treatment decisions and whether consumers would be permitted to sue for damages, with Democrats favoring more stringent protections.

The insurance industry has resisted the Democratic bill, arguing in part that the legislation could cause insurance premiums and overall health care costs to soar, as they did at the start of the decade for other reasons.

But Clinton on Friday came armed with ammunition of his own. Noting that the federal employees’ health insurance program already has instituted, at his direction last year, most of the provisions sought by the Democratic bill, Clinton said that a just-completed study by the Office of Personnel Management shows that the additional cost of those safeguards amount to less than $10 a year per enrollee.

“I think that’s worth it,” Clinton said.

Among those who flew here from Washington with Clinton was Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), sponsor of the Democratic bill. The measure fell short of House passage last summer by five votes.

Instead, House Republicans passed their own version of a “patients’ bill of rights” but without conferring on consumers certain legally enforceable rights.

Chen reported from Philadelphia and Trejos reported from Los Angeles.