Legislative Victory for Negligence Victims
Washington, DC––The recent passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, H.R. 4, represents a significant victory for newly-injured persons with disabilities caused by the negligence or wrongdoing of another. This new version of the bill, which the House of Representatives passed on July 28 and the Senate passed on August 3, omitted a particularly harmful provision that would have given health insurance companies first claim to any damages a victim could recover from a negligent party. The little-known provision had been tagged on to an earlier version of the legislation (H.R. 2830). The provision would have been a windfall for the insurance industry but a financial disaster for people trying to rebuild their lives after a catastrophic injury caused by the wrongdoing or negligence of another.
“We are extremely pleased that, due to a unified advocacy effort, we averted what could have been a terribly harmful situation for newly-injured persons,” said United Spinal Executive Director Paul Tobin. “We failed to see the logic of a proposal that could allow health insurance companies to take a negligence victim’s court award or settlement and force that person to depend on taxpayers for future medical costs. The proposal has no place in a pension reform bill and we’re delighted that it has been eliminated.”
Under current law in most states, if an injured person sues and successfully recovers damages from the individual that caused the harm, the health insurer may recoup some of its costs from those damages, but only after the injured person is “made whole.” The term “made whole” generally means that the injured person is permitted to keep enough of the settlement to compensate for future costs incurred as a result of the injury. For many people with serious disabling injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord injuries, medical costs over a lifetime can run into the millions of dollars.
The new version of the legislation emerged after House-Senate conference committee negotiations on a larger bill tying pension reform with tax breaks collapsed. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.
United Spinal worked with a coalition of advocacy groups opposed to the provision in the earlier version of the pension reform bill. The coalition included AARP, Alliance for Retired Americans, American Association of People with Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, and the Brain Injury Association of America, among others.
United Spinal Association is a national membership organization for people with spinal cord injury or disorder (SCI/D). In addition to helping write the Americans with Disabilities Act, United Spinal was also instrumental in drafting portions of the Fair Housing Amendments Act and the Air Carrier Access Act. Our staff promotes compliance with these laws and educates the public about them through our programs, publications, and workshops.