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<nobr>Jun 22, 2004</nobr>
Patients Rights Legislation Would Create a “Health Litigation Tax” for Working Families
Washington, D.C. - The call by some Members of Congress to revive an out-of-date patients’ rights legislation is a major step backwards for our health care system that would amount to nothing more than a "health litigation tax" levied on millions of working families, The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) said today in response to legislation (H.R. 4628) re-introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Dingell (D-MI).
Dingell’s legislation comes on the heels of yesterday’s 9-0 Supreme Court decision in Devila v. Aetna that held that patients could not sue their HMOs in state court when they refused to pay for medical treatment. ERIC hailed the Court’s decision saying that it validates ERISA’s long-standing status as the only solution for resolving benefit coverage determinations and that the decision will help expand and stabilize employer-provided health benefits.
“The Dingell legislation would expose employer-sponsored health plans to endless lawsuits and uncapped damage awards under both federal and state law,” said Mark Ugoretz, president of The ERISA Industry Committee. “Even when employers are not sued directly, the costs of litigation and uncapped damage awards will be transferred to employers by insurers and health administrators in the form of significantly increased premiums. Employers would be left with no choice but to pass on these costs to workers in the form of reduced coverage and increased cost-sharing.”
Ugoretz continued: “No employer can tolerate the liability exposure and unpredictable increases in the cost of providing coverage that the Dingell bill threatens. The effect of this legislation will be to force employers to radically redesign their health benefit plans in order to minimize their liability exposure and offset rapid cost acceleration or drop coverage altogether. As a result, far more employees, retirees and dependents are likely to be hurt than helped by this legislation.”
Contact: Doug Baj, Director of Communications, (202) 789-1400, dbaj@eric.org
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The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a non-profit association committed to the advancement of employee retirement, health, and welfare benefit plans of America's largest employers and represents exclusively the employee benefits interests of major employers. ERIC's members provide comprehensive retirement, health care coverage and other economic security benefits directly to some 25 million active and retired workers and their families. ERIC has a strong interest in proposals affecting its members' ability to deliver those benefits, their cost and their effectiveness, as well as the role of those benefits in the American economy.
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