Don Nickles: “I regret our colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle have decided to once again try to turn an issue, an important…”

“I regret our colleagues on the Democrat side of the aisle have decided to once again try to turn an issue, an important issue, Patients' Bill of Rights, into a political theater and not legislate, not come up with reasonable compromise. Instead, they want votes. They want to try to score points. I find that to be unfortunate because we are working very hard to try to come up with a responsible product. A compromise in the conference committee is not easy on this issue because the differences between the House bill and the Senate bill are significant. They are significantly different in cost and scope and liability. We are trying to bridge those differences. It takes time, it takes compromise, it takes both sides working together. We made a lot of progress with our colleagues on the Democrat side, in spite of what my good friend from Massachusetts says, a lot more progress than 2 out of 20 items. We agreed on an appeals process. Maybe not on every single last letter, but by and large we agreed on the appeals process.”