The Patients' Bill of Rights died last year in the U.S. House of Representatives, but this year it was resurrected Jan. 19 and has the support of a national online petition.

The bill, introduced both times by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., lost by five votes last year. U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, is among the bill's nearly 180 co-sponsors this year.

The petition officially was placed online April 9 to provide easy circulation, said Carol Steele, press secretary for Strickland.

"This legislation will help patients regain control over health-care decisions without fear that they will be left with the entire bill because their health maintenance organization decided not to pay," Strickland said.

HMOs, a form of managed care, provide health care to subscribed patients within a network of designated hospitals and physicians.

Jeff Kirsch, field director for Families USA, a nonprofit organization, said Families USA is sponsoring the petition along with other consumer, labor and medical associations.

The petition eventually will be presented to congressional leadership to push it as a priority on the legislative agenda, Kirsch said. Families USA has not set a specific goal of signatures before the petition is presented, he said. About 20,000 people have signed the petition thus far.

Steele said the bill is one of several attempts to reform health care.

"The Patients' Bill of Rights is the most comprehensive health-care reform (on Capitol Hill)," she said. No other health-care legislation contains as many reforms as The Patients' Bill of Rights, Steele said.

If passed, the bill will reform the HMO system, Steele said. The reform is needed because HMOs do not provide adequate health care, she said.

Provisions include the following: HMO-covered access to emergency rooms; guaranteed access to medical specialists; access to physicians outside an HMO network; the ability to appeal the decisions of HMOs regarding medically necessary services desired by the patient; and the right to prosecute HMOs for poor medical coverage decisions, Steele said.

"HMOs are driven by a profit motive," she said. "(They are) going to factor cost into the care that you get much more than traditional insurance (companies)."

Richard Coorsh, spokesman for the Health Insurance Association of America, said HIAA is opposed to The Patients' Bill of Rights.

Passing the bill would raise health-care costs and increase the number of uninsured Americans because of its mandates, Coorsh said.

"The Patients' Bill of Rights does nothing to improve the quality of health care. It only gives lawyers the right to bill legal fees (to patients seeking litigation)," he said. "It remains to be seen whether the Democrats in the House are interested in having a bill passed or (whether they) are interested in having an issue to run on during the 2000 election."

The petition is available at http://www.familiesusa.org.