Next House Speaker won't be PARCA-friendly

Patient protection legislation may have lost an important ally when Rep. Robert Livingston (RLa.) resigned as the new Speaker of the House in December amidst allegations that he had extramarital affairs while in office.

In the last Congress, Livingston supported the Patient Access to Responsible Care Act (PARCA), a bill that would have allowed more injured patients to sue their health plans for malpractice.

Livingston was replaced by Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (RIll.), the former chair of the House Republican Working Group on Health Care Quality, which drafted a moderate patient protection bill. During the last Congress, the House approved the Republican proposal, which denied consumers the right to sue their managed-care plans and refused to hold the plan accountable for medical care.

Like former House Speaker Newt Gringrich (RGa.), Hastert has consistently supported the insurance industry and opposed efforts to pass market-correcting consumer protection standards for health care, says Peter Newbould, APA's director of congressional affairs.

In addition to opposing PARCA, Hastert has spoken out against the 1996 Mental Health Parity Act, which requires insurance companies to impose the same annual and lifetime benefit dollar limits for physical and mental health services. The current law sunsets in 2001.
--L. Rabasca

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