Editorial: House GOP leaders doom patient rights

The gulf is widening between the public and the GOP leadership in Congress over the need for health care reform. A poll conducted for Newsweek magazine, whose cover story last week was titled "HMO Hell," found that 61 percent of Americans are "frustrated and angry" with the health care system and that seven in 10 want some type of action by the federal government. Meanwhile last week Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert -- cowed by the powerful HMO lobby's opposition to a patient's bill of rights -- in all likelihood destroyed any chance of HMO reform being passed this year.

Ignoring the overwhelming support for a patient's bill of rights that passed the House last month by 275-151, Hastert stood the concept of majority rule on its head. Because the Senate passed competing HMO legislation, Hastert was required to appoint 13 House Republican members to a conference committee to see if a compromise could be reached. But of the 13 members he named, incredibly Hastert selected only one who voted for the patient's bill of rights. Since the Senate's Republican-sponsored version is weak, and reads as if it was drafted by insurers, Hastert has ensured HMOs will get their way.

In response to the snub, on Wednesday the House took the unusual step of passing a resolution -- supported by Nevada's House members, Republican Jim Gibbons and Democrat Shelley Berkley -- that states its representatives to the House-Senate conference committee should insist on the House-backed patient's bill of rights. But it is guaranteed that Hastert's handpicked negotiators simply will ignore the nonbinding resolution. Hastert's backdoor maneuver may have given HMOs a huge win -- and guaranteed more campaign cash for Republicans in the pockets of health insurers -- but in reality this was a move of desperation that only a weak leader would dare use.

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