Comments: A sad farewell

Posted by Margaret Diann at February 14, 2007 10:19 AM

By CQ Staff

Published: February 13, 2007

Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia’s 10th Congressional District died Tuesday at the age of 65 at his home in Augusta, less than one week after his office announced he would forgo further hospital treatment for lung cancer that had spread to other parts of his body.

“On behalf of my colleagues from the state of Georgia, it is with great sadness that I announce that our colleague Charlie Norwood passed away at approximately 12:45 today,” said Republican Rep. Nathan Deal, who represents the 9th District adjacent to Norwood’s. “Charlie was a great member of this body and a friend to all.”

Norwood, a personable conservative, was popular both among the residents of his strongly Republican northeastern Georgia constituency — who gave him an easy win for a seventh House term last November, just before he received the diagnosis of lung cancer — and fellow lawmakers in Washington.

Among the tributes that poured in from members of both parties and both congressional chambers was one from House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio. Boehner said that Norwood “didn’t know the word ‘defeat.’”

“The man never lost his zeal, his purpose for being here,” Boehner added. “He was a great member who came here for the right reasons.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called Norwood a “plain-spoken and passionate public servant” who “faced the end of his life and his sickness with great bravery and dignity.”

Under Georgia’s law dealing with U.S. House vacancies, Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue has 10 days, or until Feb. 23, to issue a “writ of election” to Georgia’s Secretary of State, Republican Karen Handel. The writ will indicate the date Perdue has chosen for a special election to fill the vacancy, which must be at least 30 days after the writ has been issued.

Less than a week earlier, on Feb. 7, Norwood’s office announced that the congressman had chosen to receive hospice care at his Georgia home rather than pursue further and aggressive treatment. The announcement came after Norwood had undergone chemotherapy and evaluation in Virginia and District of Columbia hospitals for a tumor in his liver.

Norwood is survived by his wife, Gloria, sons Charles and Carlton, and four grandchildren.

The diagnosis of cancer last November was the latest in a series of life-threatening lung problems that Norwood has endured. Diagnosed in 1998 with a disease known as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Norwood had a single-lung transplant in 2004. The congressman also survived a serious car accident in 2000 that shattered several of his ribs and bones in his hands.

• Pursuit of “Patients’ Rights.” A dentist, Norwood was heavily involved in debates on health care issues throughout his 12 full years in office and had a prominent — though at times controversial — role in his promotion of a “patient’s bill of rights.”

Just one day before his death, Norwood’s office announced that he was reintroducing the original “patient’s bill of rights” legislation he co-sponsored in 1999 with Democratic Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan.

The measure, aimed at addressing consumers’ complaints about medical coverage decisions made by health maintenance organizations and insurance companies, would allow patients to sue insurers governed by the

Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in state courts for medical decisions and improper denials of care that result in injury or death.

In a statement, Norwood said the original bill “would be a good start” for the 110th Congress, in which the Democrats, as a result of big gains in the 2006 elections, ended a dozen years of Republican control in the House. Over years of stalemated debate, Democratic lawmakers have tended to be more favorable to patients’ bill of rights legislation, and Norwood said he hoped the Democratic-controlled Congress would help the measure become law.
But in his efforts over the years to craft legislation to address this issue, Norwood at times went back and forth across the partisan aisle and sometimes left hard feelings in his wake.

In 1998, the House passed a bill Norwood co-wrote with other Republicans in response to consumer complaints concerning health maintenance organizations and health insurance companies.

When Congress failed to enact that bill, Norwood in the next Congress sought a bipartisan solution and allied himself with Dingell, the powerful ranking Democrat on the Commerce Committee (who with the Democratic takeover has resumed his former role as chairman of what is now the Energy and Commerce Committee). They drew up a bill that would have allowed patients to sue their health plans over coverage decisions, which passed the Republican-controlled House with 275 votes.

But then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, angered by Norwood’s deal-cutting with Democrats, did not appoint him to the conference committee negotiating the legislation with the Senate; the measure was never enacted.

Norwood then pivoted again in 2001 and secretly aligned himself on the issue with President Bush, then in his first year in office, on a proposal that was more pleasing to Republicans but alienated Democrats. The issue soon lost steam as health care and insurance companies moved to ameliorate many of the practices that had provoked the ire of patients.

This issue was one of the few, though, in which Norwood strayed at all from conservative Republican orthodoxy.

• Citizen Politician. Norwood was into middle age when he entered the political arena: His successful run for the House in 1994 was his first bid for public office.