WASHINGTON -- Defying President Bush's veto threat, the Democrat-led Senate on Friday approved a landmark bill giving Americans sweeping new health care rights and the power to sue health insurance groups if treatment is denied.
Approved 59-36 after nearly two weeks of heated debate that pitted big business against consumer groups, the Democrat-backed patients' bill of rights now goes to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives where it faces a protracted fight that may well reach into the 2002 congressional election.
The Senate vote marked Bush's biggest legislative defeat since taking office in January, and a major setback for HMOs, insurers and large U.S. employers, which mounted a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign warning that the legislation would lead to higher health care costs and increase the number of uninsured.
For the Senate's new majority leader, South Dakota Democrat Tom Daschle, the vote was a political victory that could strengthen his hand in future fights with Bush on Medicare reform and energy policy.
"Now we aren't going to be able to win everything in the future. But we have demonstrated to the American people that there is an alternative to the Republicans and that there really are differences between the two parties," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.
Democrats made the long-stalled patients' bill of rights their first priority after taking control of the Senate on June 5, drawing battle lines with Bush on legislation popular with the American public. Analysts said the outcome could affect elections next year and beyond.
Proposed by Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the bill would permit jury awards of up to $5 million in federal court and unlimited punitive damages under state law.
It would also ensure that all Americans with private or public health insurance -- as many as 294 million people in all clinical drug trials.
In the final hours of debate, Democrats agreed to Republican demands to limit class action lawsuits against HMOs, to cap lawyers' fees, and to force patients with disputes to wait at least a month before going to court.
Senate Democrats also backed amendments to limit the liability of employers and to give states leeway in meeting the proposed federal standards.
"We made a lot of improvements, a lot of changes that the president should find to his liking, and I would hope (Bush) would reconsider" his veto threat, Daschle said.
But conservative Republicans said the bill remained fatally flawed, and Assistant Senate Republican Leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma urged Bush to veto it.
