Bush: Senate bill for patients' rights benefits lawyers

FAIRFAX, Virginia (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush vowed to veto the Senate’s version of a patients’ bill of rights Tuesday as he stood by a newborn in a Fairfax, Virginia, nursery, saying he wants a measure that addresses patient concerns rather than the well-being of trial lawyers.

The Bush White House has lobbed veto threats toward the Senate bill since the chamber initiated two weeks of debate on the patients’ bill in mid-June. The Senate passed its bill last Friday evening by a vote of 59-36.

MESSAGE BOARDS The Bush presidency   Health care reform

Bush, many of his closest advisers and the House Republican leadership -- which will drive the next phase of the patients’ rights saga on the House floor -- argue the Senate bill opens up too many doors to lawsuits.

Republicans insist that lawsuits against insurance providers and health maintenance organizations for damages when a provider won’t pay for a needed treatment should be initiated only as a last resort.

Bush has thrown his support behind one of two House bills that are expected to come to the floor in mid-July.

The Senate vote

That bill contains many of the same patient protections included in the Senate bill, but would not allow patients who believe they have been wronged by their insurers to sue unless their disputes have been thoroughly vetted by a review board.

Even then, patients would find their options, such as the venue in which the suit might be heard, limited compared with what the Senate bill would allow. Also, the awards for which they would be eligible if their lawsuit succeeded would be considerably smaller than those outlined in the Senate legislation.

The president and first lady Laura Bush took a quick trip Tuesday morning by limousine to Fairfax County, just west of the District of Columbia, where they greeted newborn Vivienne Sayle, born Monday to one of Mrs. Bush’s staff assistants.

Gesturing toward the infant, with her parents Desiree and Stephen Sayle standing nearby, Bush compared the responsibilities of parenting with the role government must play on such a divisive issue.

"We also have a responsibility, and Congress needs to bring me a bill that will help patients who come to these hospitals maintain reasonable insurance, and a bill that doesn't help lawyers," he said.

With the House and Senate in recess this week to mark Independence Day, rhetoric about the bill has quieted somewhat, but the Bush administration is doing its best to keep the issue visible by lining the president up with the bill that is supported by the leadership of the House.

The efforts and profile of the new, Democratic Senate gained a significant amount of exposure as the sponsors of that chamber’s bill -- Democrats John Edwards of North Carolina and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Republican John McCain of Arizona -- consistently beat back Republican attempts to tone down its liability provisions last week.

That task now falls to the House Republicans, whose leaders have told the White House that the Senate bill won’t see the light of day there if they have their way. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois said over the weekend that the leadership would try to block a vote on the Senate bill, should it come up.

The goal, Hastert said, "is to bring up a bill that I think is a better bill." Should the GOP bill pass the House, the long-range goal is to use it as a foundation for a compromise with the Senate.

The House bill would give patients a limited right to sue in state court if they are injured after their health maintenance organization refuses to follow a treatment decision by an outside review panel to which the patient had appealed. Republicans had initially sought to limit suits to federal courts, believing state courts often yield more generous pay outs.

It would also protect employers who provide health insurance from being sued by limiting liability to a "dedicated decision-maker," typically the HMO.

Similar language was inserted into the Senate bill during the amendment process, but Republicans there continued to argue right up through final passage that it still leaves employers open to lawsuits.

The result, they said, could be decisions by many small businesses to drop their health benefits altogether.

It is a near certainty that there will be a tough fight in the House. The independent review panels called for in the leadership-supported bill will be appointed by the secretary of Health and Human Services, but paid by the insurance industry.

That won’t sit well with many House members, who just two years ago voted to pass a patients’ rights bill that looked very similar to the current Senate version.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, told CNN on Sunday he hoped Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle would be willing to negotiate with the House so a bill could be signed into law this year.

But Daschle didn’t appear ready to yield, saying Democrats have "compromised a good deal."

-- CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett contributed to this report.