Political Quotes

“I have introduced an amendment which is a comprehensive approach to the Patients' Bill of Rights. Essentially this bill is the Frist-Breaux-Jeffords bill which was introduced on May 15 of this year, modified with several of the amendments... This amendment is a comprehensive replacement amendment for the bill. It involves strong patient protections, access to specialists, access to specialty care, access to emergency rooms, elimination of gag clauses, continuity of care. It has a strong appeals process, internal and external appeals. It requires full exhaustion of the internal and external appeals process. If the external decision... overrides the plan, then and only then does one go to court for the extraordinary damages. At any time during the appeals process you can go for what is called injunctive relief. Once you go for these damages, what are they? Economic damages are unlimited; noneconomic damages are $750,000 or three times economic damages. And that is a change from the underlying Frist-Breaux-Jeffords bill. There are no punitive damages.”