David Thomas: “we have been involved now all week--and, I am sure, will be involved for some time longer--on the Patients' Bill of…”

“we have been involved now all week--and, I am sure, will be involved for some time longer--on the Patients' Bill of Rights. It is an issue that is very broad. Quite frankly, there are different points of view. I cringe a little bit when I constantly hear from the other side of the aisle that special interests are what is guiding it. I have to tell you, if there are special interests on one side, there are special interests on both sides. But I really do not think that. There are different points of view as to how we best help deliver health services. I am getting a little weary of this special interest idea, when it is perfectly legitimate for us to have different ideas about how we do it. That is what this is all about. I think we ought to maybe go back to some basics and talk about it a little bit. I do not think it ought to be a political issue. I do not think people on this side, who are concerned about driving up the costs or who are concerned about having an excess of litigation, are driven by special interests. They have views on that. I respect that. And I respect it on both sides. We have been dealing with a very complicated issue. In fact, this issue has been around the Senate now at least for 3 years. We have passed bills very similar, as a matter of fact, to what we are talking about now. We have tried to put them together with bills over in the House and have not succeeded in doing that. So there are differences of view in how you do it.”