John Tierney: “for 5 years-plus Democrats and some Republicans have worked towards a Patients' Bill of Rights. The real heroes in this…”

“for 5 years-plus Democrats and some Republicans have worked towards a Patients' Bill of Rights. The real heroes in this one are the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell). On the Senate side, they are Senators Edwards, Kennedy, and McCain. Central to the effort is the need to stop unfair denial of access to medical care. Story after story has been heard in the past of people of all ages being denied appointments with specialists, being denied the right to seek emergency care when they reasonably believed they had an emergency. It is important when it is your child, and it is important when it is your parent. Also central has been the need to hold HMOs accountable for their bad decisions that unfairly denied people the benefit of their doctor's advice or the care that they needed. Doctors and nurses have been held responsible for their actions but impersonal HMOs have been allowed to deny care, act arbitrarily and with impunity without being held accountable. In all that time, the person who is now President of the United States first vetoed the Patients' Bill of Rights in Texas, then he opposed it and allowed it to become law only because it had a veto-proof majority and he did not even sign it. Then, of course, he took credit for it during the campaign. The majority of Republicans and Republican leadership resisted true patients' bill of rights reform vigorously.”