Its been a long, long wait for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. He finally had his way with those rascally Republicans.

When he took over as majority leader in early June, Daschle said his first priority was to introduce patients’ bill of rights legislation.

The so-called “bill of rights” was passed by the Senate late last week by a 59-36 vote. The bill will go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives next week, after the Fourth of July recess.

Thankfully, President George W. Bush has promised a veto if the bill manages to pass the House.

The bill stomps on small businesses while feeding the open pocket of trial lawyers.

What it allows for is the suing of HMOs when they deny or delay necessary health care.

Cases concerning medical malpractice would be heard by state courts. Federal courts would hear cases of contract dispute.

This makes no sense. Why should a state court hear cases based on a federal law?

The federal courts are completely capable of conducting a hearing. It is intrusive on states’ rights to tell them they must hear these cases.

The HMOs could be sued for up to $5 million for punitive damages, and the bill sets no cap on damages from pain and suffering.

Now lets think about the results of this.

A guy gets denied “necessary” health care.

He goes to a lawyer who hears opportunity knocking loud and clear. The lawyer sues the HMO and wins $10 million.

What is going to happen? I guarantee the HMO isn’t going to just take a multi-million dollar hit in the pocket.

They are going to pass it on to all the consumers. Premiums will go up, and as a result, less people will be able to afford insurance.

Sure, insurance companies need to be held accountable, but not by the government.

They are private businesses; let consumers hold them accountable by going elsewhere for business.

Not only would it require a better product, but also prices would go down because these companies would have to compete with one another.

And HMOs are not the only ones who are going to get sued.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., proposed an amendment to the bill that would ban all patients rights lawsuits against employers with 15 or less employees. It was shot down 55-43.

So not only will rates go up, but small business owners will stop providing health care for their employees.

Why would they want to provide a benefit that could land them in court, costing them millions?

With companies discontinuing health care benefits and prices rising, the number of uninsured will increase.

Democrats are saying these arguments are nothing but scare tactics aimed to gain support for the Republican bill.

It is almost humorous that any Democrat would accuse Republicans of using scare tactics.

They must not have been around last fall when Al Gore based his entire campaign on scare tactics.

They must not have been listening when they talk about global warming and the environment.

They must not even understand why this issue is such a big one – they used scare tactics to make the American public scared of those so-called “evil” HMOs.

What the arguments are really about is the truth. The truth about this bill, along with basic reasoning.

So why would the Democrats want to pass a bill that would have such horrific effects on the nation?

It could be for a number of reasons.

It is clear this bill will provide great benefits for lawyers by allowing them to sue a new group of people whenever they feel the need to make some extra cash.

Democrats really tried to cover this one up. They actually had to compromise to cap lawyers’ fees at one-third of a patient’s award.

If they are really concerned with patients and their rights, isn’t one-third a bit steep? Remember, they were talked down to that.

It is quite possible the Democrats want some extra money in their pockets when it comes time to campaign next election.

Getting lawyers rich would certainly help them.

Or maybe the Democrats are just playing politics. They know Bush will veto this bill if it makes it to his desk.

Maybe they are trying to simply build the issue up for their presidential candidate in 2004.

Some are even accusing the Democrats of setting up a system they know will fail.

If they know more people are going to be uninsured, it makes the case for a national health care system sound much more logical.

Regardless of their intentions, the country does not need a patients’ bill of rights, Republican model or Democratic model.

What the country needs is more competition within the industry to drive prices down while driving the quality of service up.

Government involvement has already caused enough harm in plenty of other industries.

Zach Calef is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Cedar Rapids. He is a news editor of the Daily.