Norwood today blasted a proposal by House leaders to tie a separate bill on health premium affordability to next week’s tentative vote on the Bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act, H.R. 2723.  "This is not a serious attempt to address the problems of the 43 million Americans with no health insurance - it is an attempt to defeat managed care reform through parliamentary maneuvering," Norwood says.  

Norwood has this year authored two separate bills on accessibility and affordability, the Access to Affordable Health Care Act, H.R. 1136, and the Consensus Access to Affordable Health Care Act, both of which include nearly all the provisions offered by Republican leaders in today’s news conference.  The former dentist has asked leadership to schedule votes on either bill, along with a separate vote on the patient rights issue addressed in H.R. 2723.    

"There are 300 votes out there in support of both issues," Norwood says.  "But the votes will come from different sides of the aisle.  There are Democrats who won’t support MSA’s, and there are Republicans who won’t support ERISA liability reform.  Put the two issues into one bill and you drive off enough votes that neither passes, and the leadership knows it.  This is apparently a last ditch stand to defeat managed care reform, even if it costs the conservative reforms that leadership has supported for years."

Norwood today mounted a drive to kill any rule or procedure that would force members to accept both bills or none.