Editorial: It’s time to break stalemate

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

The sticking point that has delayed a patient's bill of rights has been whether a patient should be allowed to sue his health plan. Federal law prohibits lawsuits against health insurers, the only industry that can't be held accountable in a court of law.

But a major impediment to a genuine patient's bill of rights was overcome last year when the Republican-controlled House passed -- by a whopping 275-151 vote -- a bill that included the right to sue. But as the Sun's Benjamin Grove reported Sunday, the GOP-run Senate still isn't budging on the lawsuit provision and is siding with the insurance industry, which opposes this legal right.

The insurance companies contend that if patients can sue, health care costs will rise. But all industries could make this argument. The true issue is accountability. Companies should be held responsible if they have egregiously harmed someone. The fact is that if the health insurers had been consistently doing their jobs, then this wouldn't have been seriously under consideration.

At one time Republicans claimed Democrats just were trying to make this a partisan issue, but with so many Republicans in the House defecting from their leadership's opposition to a patient's bill of rights, the partisanship claim against Democrats rings hollow. The Republican leaders in the Senate should end this stalemate before they adjourn next month, passing legislation that finally provides substantial protections for patients.