Health-care reform's hidden gift to the HMOs

I cover, in my column today, an underreported detail about health-care reform:

Did you know that, if your job-based HMO wrongly denies you coverage for a medical treatment, and that denial leads to your injury or death, federal law may protect that insurer from paying any damages to you or your family?

Did you know that the House Democrats' health-care "reform" bill would cement this extraordinary legal immunity for the health insurance companies?

Despite the crusading anti-HMO rhetoric coming from the White House and some congressional Democrats this summer, the "reform" bills currently on Capitol Hill include many gifts to health insurers: The bills would all subsidize private insurance and mandate that individuals carry insurance; some also mandate employers insure their workers.