Political Quotes

“I would say, in answering my colleague's question, that in fact I am having difficulty imagining a case right now. The vast majority of cases similar to what we have just been discussing would fall within the category of a contract interpretation involving a medically reviewable fact. So I think, at least of all the examples that occur to me as I stand here, those cases would all end up in State court. As the Senator and I have spoken about on a number of occasions, he has a concern--and I understand it--about the possibility of there being some confusion about which cases go to State court and which cases go to Federal court. We think we have defined that fairly well in our bill. I might add, in response to the Senator's question, that there is a principle involved in this which we have not discussed, which is that physicians, hospitals, and health care providers believe--and I agree with them--if an HMO is going to overrule their decision and engage in the practice of medicine, they ought to be treated the same way they are treated. As the Senator knows, their cases are normally handled in State courts. So I think conceptually we start with the principle that HMOs should be treated the same as other health care providers when they make medical decisions. No. 2, I say to my colleague that what we are doing is taking a Federal protection curtain that was unintended for HMOs when it was passed--because they basically did not exist--and lifting it.”