Last week I joined Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to introduce a new Patients’ Bill of Rights. This legislation is designed to ensure that important medical decisions are left to doctors and patients, instead of insurance companies and HMOs. I introduced a similar bill with a bipartisan group of congressional colleagues last year, but the Republican leadership in the Senate killed the proposal after it passed the House. Nevertheless, I am confident that this new version will have enough support to be enacted into law this year.

It is important to remember that too many Americans still do not have any kind of medical insurance at all. However, even those who do have coverage often are not able to receive the treatment that their doctor recommends, because an insurance company or HMO refuses to pay for it. I do not believe that it is fair for insurance company bureaucrats to make the most important medical decisions about a person’s health, especially in life-or-death situations.

The bipartisan Patients’ Bill of Rights that I helped to write guarantees that timely, high-quality health care is available to the millions of Americans with private health insurance coverage through either their employers or the individual market. It protects access to critical treatment options, including emergency care, specialty care, non-formulary drugs, clinical trials, pediatric and ob-gyn, and continuity of care for those with ongoing health care needs.

One of the most important accomplishments of this legislation is that it holds insurance companies and HMOs accountable for any bad decisions they make regarding a person’s health that result in the injury or death of a patient. As the system stands today, a representative of one of these organizations — someone without medical training — can dictate a course of treatment for a sick person, and if that treatment fails, the law protects the organization from incurring any liability. Put simply, the current rules state that insurance companies and HMOs cannot be held responsible for their mistakes. There is no other industry in this nation that receives this kind of protection from our government. Just imagine if Firestone could not be held responsible for its faulty tires, even when they result in the deaths of innocent people.

Critics of the Patients’ Bill of Rights say that if we hold insurance companies and HMOs accountable for their actions, there will be too many lawsuits. However, this has not been the case in states where similar legislation has been enacted. Our bill ensures that patients must always exhaust the appeals process before going to court when it is still possible to remedy the situation, and provides a mechanism to hold plans accountable for medical decisions that result in injury or death. It also draws a bright line between federal and state jurisdictions in these matters.

In the end, this issue comes down to an individual’s control over his or her own health. When a person is sick, the only person qualified to make decisions about a course of treatment is a trusted and experienced doctor or other medical professional, not an administrator at an insurance company or HMO. The new bipartisan Patients’ Bill of Rights I introduced last week will put some power back in the hands of patients and medical professionals. It has a broad base of support among members of both political parties in both houses of Congress, and I think it has a good chance to pass. The American people will surely benefit if it does.