Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the consumer health care choice amendment. This amendment would amend section 302 of the underlying legislation to provide that employers and health plan issuers would be free to offer, and participants and beneficiaries free to choose, health plans with two remedy options, in addition to the underlying plan: equitable relief--the benefit or value of the benefit; and unlimited economic damages. The bill provides damages as provided under S. 1052 unlimited economic and non-economic, and up to $5 million in punitive damages. This amendment applies only to the new remedies established by S. 1052 for Federal contract actions and state 'medically reviewable' claims. It explicitly protects the regulation of medical care delivery under state law. The problem: Increased premium costs lead to greater numbers of uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that S. 1052 would result in a 4.2 percent increase in premiums costs. This predicted increase is in addition to the 10-12 percent increase employers are already facing this year. The CBO report illustrates the cold truth about a critical, but often overlooked, public policy issue: The irrefutable link between health-care premium increases and the number of Americans without insurance. As the Congress debates the various health-care proposals, we must keep this linkage in mind.”