Tom Harkin: “I first say a big thank you to Senator Kennedy for his many years of leadership on this issue, and also thank Senator…”

“I first say a big thank you to Senator Kennedy for his many years of leadership on this issue, and also thank Senator Edwards for his leadership and sponsorship of this bill, along with Senator McCain. This is not a new issue in this Chamber. Senator Kennedy led the battle on this, starting about 5 years ago, if I am not mistaken. We passed it last year, as you know. The House passed a good bill, but the Senate passed a rather bad bill. We went to conference, and we could not get anything out of conference. We used to meet periodically over here in a room, in Senator Nickles' room, to try to hammer things out, but it became clear that the more we met, the less that was going to get done. So now we have a chance, this year, to catch up on all that and to pass this meaningful legislation. I believe we are on the verge of a big victory for the American people. They have been waiting too long for this in the waiting rooms-- about 5 years--where mothers, fathers, and children have been forced to spend countless hours negotiating the massive bureaucracy of their managed care plans, desperately trying to get the health care services they need and deserve. Unfortunately, it is clear that the opponents of a Patients' Bill of Rights are not giving up their fight. They may succeed in convincing a few to delay it for a few more days, but they are not going to be successful in stopping the Senate from passing the protections that patients should have had years ago.”