"Patient
Protections" Would Help Lawyers And Hurt Consumers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Richard Coorsh
September 14, 2000
(202) 824-1787
e-mail: rcoorsh@hiaa.org
The following statement was released today by Chip Kahn, President of
the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA):
Today’s made-for-media event in support of so-called "patient
protections" has everything to do with public relations, little if
anything with health care quality, and nothing to do with what should be
the number one "patient protection": affordable health coverage.
So-called "patient protections" would hurt, not help consumers. Indeed,
the latest Dingell-Norwood "patient protection" legislation would increase
the threat of unlimited "jackpot by jury" litigation by authorizing new
lawsuits in both state and federal courts. Extending this kind of
authority to the trial bar would further fuel rising health care costs,
and add to our nation’s most grievous national epidemic: the estimated one
million Americans who, through no fault of their own, are added each year
to the rolls of the nation’s uninsured.
Health insurers and health plans are one of the nation’s most regulated
industries, and we continually respond to consumers by adopting improved
coverages and services. On the other hand, so-called "patient protection"
legislation responds primarily to the interests of organized medicine and
the trial bar.
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