John Bel Edwards: “One, the entire Patients' Bill of Rights is about treating everybody the same. This, of course, carves out a special…”

“One, the entire Patients' Bill of Rights is about treating everybody the same. This, of course, carves out a special treatment for HMOs on the issue of accountability. Second, this amendment makes a special exception under RICO for HMOs and under rules of procedure. Third, it has been some time since I looked at the rules, I confess, but I seem to recall under class action law, rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, there is a numerosity requirement, that you have to have a sufficient number of employees involved to satisfy the class action requirement, and I am not sure under the language the Senator has drafted that would be possible because I believe, if I understand the Senator's amendment correctly, he has limited it to one employer for purposes of class actions.”