61% of Small Firms Back Measure to Allow HMOs to Be Sued,
TA
---------------------------------
October 29, 1999
Small Firms Back Measure
To Allow HMOs to Be Sued
By CAROL GENTRY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A national survey found that most small-business owners support
legislation that would allow patients to sue health-maintenance
organizations. That raises a question: Why have small-business groups
been leading the fight against it?
The 1999 Employer Health Benefits survey, an annual independent report
on health insurance in the private sector, questioned about 1,940
employers this past spring. While it found solid support for most provisions
of the patients' rights legislation now before Congress, such as making it
easier to get emergency-room bills paid, the survey uncovered a wide gap
in opinion on the right to sue health plans between owners of companies
with fewer than 200 employees and executives of larger companies.
While 61% of smaller employers favored a right-to-sue law, the survey
team reported, large employers opposed it 3-to-1 . The exception: "jumbo"
companies, those with 5,000 or more employees, where a slim majority
also supported the right to sue a health plan.
Overall, 60% of employers expressed support for the issue, up from 46%
in last year's survey.
The results drew surprise and skepticism from the National Federation of
Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, both of which
have historically represented small-business interests on Capitol Hill. With
their big-business ally, the National Association of Manufacturers, the
federation and chamber have spent the past few months trying to carve the
lawsuit clause out of patients' rights bills. They failed in the House but
prevailed in the Senate, leaving the controversy up to a conference
committee to resolve, probably in January.
Both groups said they have surveyed their own members and found
opposition to the right to sue because of the chance it would raise the cost
of health insurance. But the survey results didn't surprise the American
Small Business Alliance, a Washington association formed in 1996 as an
alternative to the chamber and federation on health-care issues.
Joel Marks, alliance executive director, said that to small employers it
seems only fair that if everyone else can be sued when they harm someone,
health plans shouldn't be exempt. "The insurance industry is accountable to
almost no one," he said.
The annual survey is conducted by the Health Research and Educational
Trust, a Chicago nonprofit group. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation,
a charity and policy research organization in Menlo Park, Calif.,
co-sponsored this year's survey. |
