Asa Hutchinson: “I think what we need, during the course of the debate on this bill, is the kind of careful analysis that Professor Gramm…”

“I think what we need, during the course of the debate on this bill, is the kind of careful analysis that Professor Gramm brings to this issue. I think as Members of the Senate actually read this bill, as the American people hear the contents of the bill and hear the kind of passionate expression and concern for a Patients' Bill of Rights in general, it will give way to concern about the impact that the bill itself would have. So the Senator from Texas called it bait and switch. It could also be called the exceptions swallow the rule. Let me review some of those examples where the exception swallows the rule. On page 35 of the bill, paragraph (C), ``No coverage for excluded benefits.'' The point in that very plain statement is that the contract is to be sacred. It is to be honored. The contract means what it says.”