Norwood to Play Key Role in Next Patients-Rights Battle Judy Holland
August 06, 2001
c.2001 Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Rep. Charlie Norwood, who crusaded for six years
for patients' rights to sue their health insurers and then stunned
Congress last week by striking a secret deal with President Bush to
limit those rights, expects to play a pivotal role in next month's
negotiations over the measure.
But some of his former allies, who accused him of selling out to
Bush, are gearing up to ambush the House-passed deal when it goes
to a House-Senate conference.
Norwood will try to hold the line and protect the House
provisions. His former allies will try to retain the broader rights
to sue passed in the Senate in early June.
Some Congress watchers wonder how effective Norwood will be. He
angered his former allies last week by skipping a planned strategy
session with them on the bill and going to the White House to deal
with Bush. Norwood had assured his colleagues that he would not
sign off on any deal without consulting them.
Officially, he offered no apologies last week, but his
spokesman, John Stone, said Friday that Norwood realizes the secret
White House negotiations were done ``too quickly and too
last-minute.''
Stone said the Georgia Republican still plans to play a big role
in the House-Senate conference.
``We just rounded second base,'' Stone said. ``First base was
the Senate, second base was passing it in the House, and third base
is the House-Senate conference where the differences will be worked
out. Home plate is the (bill signing in the White House) Rose
Garden.''
Democratic critics of the Bush-Norwood legislation still expect
to deal with the maverick lawmaker.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told reporters Friday he does
not question ``the motivations or the sincerity'' of Norwood. ``I
have a lot of respect for him,'' Kennedy said. ``I think he really
believes this (the Bush-Norwood plan) is the way to provide these
protections'' for patients.
Norwood's frustration in dealing with HMOs when he was a dental
surgeon in Augusta, Ga., led to his battle in Congress to curb
their power over patients.
During 20 years of practicing dentistry, he repeatedly voiced
anger to physicians and other dentists over his dealings with
managed care providers.
He was especially outraged after a young insurance clerk with no
medical training told him by telephone that a root canal on a
patient was unnecessary. Norwood warned that simply filling the
tooth could cause infection that could kill the patient. When the
insurer wouldn't cover the procedure, Norwood did the procedure
anyway and then severed all future dealings with managed care
providers.
``What (the health insurers) wanted was always the cheapest, not
the best care,'' Norwood said two years ago. ``It drove me crazy.''
Norwood, 60, is known for battling his own Republican leaders on
health care.
As soon as he took his oath of office in 1995, he began
pressuring then-Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia to
bring a bill to the floor that would grant patients the right to
sue HMOs in state court. He built a health care coalition, fending
the powerful health insurance industry.
Gingrich said he would bring the bill to the floor if he could
get 200 supporters. By 1997, Norwood had collected 234 backers, but
the measure never got a vote.
In 1998 Norwood tried again but backed off a strong measure when
Republican leaders said it could not pass. So he agreed to broker a
weaker bill that passed the House but died in the Senate.
In 1999, he angered Republicans once more by joining with
Democrat John D. Dingell of Michigan, his friend and sometime
hunting partner, to win House passage of a measure that would give
patients broad rights to sue. That measure won support of 68
Republicans but died in conference.
This week Norwood put a smile on Bush's face by agreeing
secretly with him to scale back his original patients-rights
legislation that was similar to the Senate bill.
Bush had threatened to veto that bill sponsored by Sens. Edward
M. Kennedy, D-Mass., John R. Edwards, D-N.C., and John McCain,
R-Ariz.
But Norwood knew that Bush was reluctant to veto it because
polls were showing that the issue resonates with voters. So he
dropped some of his original provisions but persuaded Bush to
accept some requiring more liability for insurers.
Marshall Wittmann, a senior scholar at the conservative Hudson
Institute think tank, said that Norwood, in making the deal that
passed the House last week, ``saved the president from having egg
on his face.''
But Thomas Mann, a fellow with the Brookings Institute, another
think tank, said Norwood may pay a price for the secret deal. Mann
predicted that Norwood's reputation will be ``diminished among
members in the House who put a lot of currency in (keeping) your
word.''
``The president will praise him, but colleagues on the other
side of the aisle and a few Republicans he has worked with will
probably never get over it,'' Mann said.
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