AAHP wary of Kennedy-McCain bill

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The Kennedy-McCain health care bill is a "Trojan Horse" that would inflict new liabilities on the very physicians who are supporting it, according to the cover story in the June/July issue of Healthplan magazine. |ret||ret||tab|

The magazine, a bi-monthly publication of the American Association of Health Plans, states that America's doctors may pay a price for what AAHP calls their odd-bedfellow alliance with trial lawyers, according to an AAHP release. |ret||ret||tab|

"People who have had a long and deep interest in formulating sound public policy in our civil justice system never would have believed it possible, but it has occurred walking from Capitol Hill office to Capitol Hill office are respected leaders in the physician community, linked in arms with very wealthy personal injury lawyers," Victor Schwartz, wrote for the magazine. |ret||ret||tab|

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Warning|ret||ret||tab|

Schwartz, co-author of the most widely used torts casebook in the United States, warns in the article that "each physician in America should appreciate that their own liability will expand" under the patient protection legislation being considered by Congress. |ret||ret||tab|

He adds, "In the end, the only practical results of that remedy would be to make wealthy personal injury lawyers even richer and to raise health costs for all Americans."|ret||ret||tab|

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AMA concerns|ret||ret||tab|

A recent New York Times article reports that the American Medical Association has new concerns, based on its own legal analysis, that "some of the proposals could boomerang and expose them to new lawsuits."|ret||ret||tab|

"Physicians have a powerful reason to steer clear of the lawyers who are momentarily seeking to make common cause with them," AAHP President and CEO Karen Ignagni wrote in a magazine foreword. "The broad language of the Kennedy-McCain bill will expand physician liability by opening them up to more conventional malpractice claims and by creating a statutory basis to sue physicians under federal law as agents' of health plans a situation in which they would not be protected by state-level malpractice reforms where available. No wonder physicians are beginning to speak of Kennedy-McCain as a Trojan horse. Many, however, may still be unaware of the bill's vast potential for harm."|ret||ret||tab|

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140 million Americans|ret||ret||tab|

The American Association of Health Plans is the largest national trade organization representing more than 1,000 health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations and other similar health plans that provide health care coverage to more than 140 million Americans.|ret||ret||tab|

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