Dick Durbin: “I would like to read it to the Senator and ask him to respond, since he has been the sponsor of a Patients' Bill of…”

“I would like to read it to the Senator and ask him to respond, since he has been the sponsor of a Patients' Bill of Rights, so that once and for all HMOs and managed care companies will be held responsible and accountable for medical decisions they make that injure patients. I ask the Senator if he would respond and tell the Senate on the record what it means to include in S. 11 a section 13, with the following language--sense of Congress: It is the sense of Congress that a health insurer should be liable for damages for harm caused when it makes a decision as to what care is medically necessary and appropriate. I ask the Senator from Massachusetts, does this sense of Congress language guarantee that those who are harmed by health insurers who make bad decisions about diagnostic procedures, stays in the hospital, necessary surgery--is this language some refuge and comfort for them that finally now they will have their day in court and now, with this sense of Congress, they can hold these health insurance companies accountable?”