Thomas Daschle: “This bill actually differentiates between those who walk in the front door of a hospital and those who get emergency…”

“This bill actually differentiates between those who walk in the front door of a hospital and those who get emergency care. We objected last time we voted on this because it differentiated between men and women. Men and women would be treated differently under the bill that cloture was voted on a few weeks ago. Now our Republican colleagues add to that people who walk into a hospital or are taken into a hospital via an emergency room. This draws a distinction that I think is inexplicable. If you are injured in an emergency room, under this legislation, you have virtually no legal recourse. If you are injured by walking through the front door of a hospital, you still have all the recourses that are allowed under Federal law. Drawing that distinction, to me, is not an improvement. That is not reform. Yet that is what some of our Republican colleagues have said.”