Friday, June 04, 1999
Lawmaker says she got mixed signal
COLUMBUS — Despite Gov. Bob Taft's campaign promise to let Ohioans sue their health maintenance organizations if denied medical treatments, a state representative says the governor's staff lobbied her to vote against the idea.
Rep. Diane Grendell, R-Chesterland, was one of two GOP lawmakers who supported an unsuccessful effort in committee to reinsert the HMO liability provision in a bill Mr. Taft dubbed the “Patient Protection Plan.”
She also was one of seven Republicans who voted for a similar amendment Thursday on the House floor.
Before the committee vote, Ms. Grendell said, two of the governor's aides urged her to support a version of the bill that was missing the liabili ty provision.
“I was encouraged to vote for the bill as it was,” Ms. Grendell said.
Mr. Taft insisted his position hasn't changed and said his staff members would have been wrong to lobby against HMO lawsuits.
Ms. Grendell thinks Republican leaders are punishing her by killing a $30,000 grant she had secured for the Geauga County Airport.
Rep. E.J. Thomas, a Columbus Republican who chairs the House Finance Committee, confirmed he asked Senate leaders to remove the grant. But he said he wanted to punish Ms. Grendell for voting against the budget, not because of her position on the HMO bill.
— Michael Hawthorne
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