Patient's Bill of Rights or HMO Protection Act - Watch CNN and You Decide

[Guest guest]

This is from Senator and explains more clearly than a lot of

articles the difference between the Bush Patients Bill of Rights

(compromised into with Charlie Norwood) and the generally Democratic

proposal.

Quoting Senator :

" For the past two years, I have been an active member of a

bipartisan team of senators and representatives pushing for

meaningful law to protect patients. Just this past June, the Senate

overwhelmingly voted 59 to 36 to pass the Bipartisan Patient

Protection Act, strong and far-reaching patient protection

legislation that I sponsored with Senator McCain.

" On Thursday, the House passed a bill favored by President Bush

that would weaken the patient protections I fought so hard for in

the Senate. The differences between their bill and ours are

simple: their version protects HMOs; our bill protects patients.

Their version overturns already existing state laws to protect

patients; our bill keeps strong state patient protection laws in place.

Their version makes it too difficult for patients who've been denied

care by an HMO to take that HMO to court; our bill ends the

special, privileged status that gives HMOs legal immunity.

" I'll continue to talk about the important differences between the

Patient Protection Act that passed the Senate and the bill to protect

HMOs that passed the House on NBC's Meet the Press this Sunday

morning. Please check your local listing for show time.

" I'll also be interviewed next Monday and Tuesday on CNN's

" Inside Politics, " which airs from 5-6 p.m. EST. "