Greg Ganske: “Reclaiming my time, but I hope the gentleman will stay for a few minutes, because some of the things in that Senate GOP…”

“Reclaiming my time, but I hope the gentleman will stay for a few minutes, because some of the things in that Senate GOP bill relating to the liability provisions are just amazing. Let me just relate a couple more for the gentleman. There is a provision in that Senate GOP bill that says that any group health plan that offers its members the choice of either an insured benefit or an individual benefit payment to be used by the Member to buy an individual insurance policy could not be held liable. What does that mean? That means that any employer could say to an employee that they have a group health plan that they can join, or they can be offered a payment to buy their our own health insurance. In that situation, the HMO and the employer could not be held liable, specifically by the language in the Senate GOP bill. There would be no liability. Now, the problem with that is that, as most people know, as an individual it is very difficult to go out and purchase our own insurance. So that what we would have is, we would have every employer in the country that offers health insurance saying, well, here is an option for you. You can buy your own insurance. Of course, no one will do that because they will not find any individual insurance for their family. But in so doing, then they totally exclude those plans from any liability for a negligent decision that they would make.”