Political Quotes

“it is modified in the following way. First of all, the question was raised about the original intent of the amendment in regard to the self-insured, self-administered plans. Specifically, with regard to contractual dispute, it will only exempt from liability employer and union plans that are self-insured and self-regulated, again applying symmetry to all of the plans regarding self-insured and self-administered, so we do not make any exceptions. So we address that by modifying it to ensure that both employer and union plans are consistent with the legislation. Secondly, because insurance plans are already regulated at State and Federal level with regard to assets and other issues, we assure that these regulated plans are not subject to a new Federal solvency plan to qualify as a designated decisionmaker. As a result, the solvency standard in this amendment will appropriately apply to nonhealth insurance designated decisionmakers. Finally, we also make a technical correction in the legislation to ensure that the causes of action are not inadvertently opened to other statutes that are already a matter of law. This change reflects the intent of our amendment to prevent the filing of lawsuits in a broader, more undefined number of issues. I urge adoption of the modification as well as the underlying amendment. Again, I remind my colleagues that this was an effort to address many of the legitimate issues that were raised regarding employer liability.”