Word: frist
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...Republican measure, sponsored by Bill Frist, Democrat John Breaux and Independent Jim Jeffords (and backed by the White House) sets up an extensive appeals process to weed out frivolous lawsuits. It also limits suits to the federal system and puts a $500,000 cap on damages. Republicans argue the Democrats' bill would leave health plans open to catastrophic legal costs and raise the price of insurance premiums, forcing employers to drop coverage. In the end, the White House argues, the unlimited-damages approach could leave millions of Americans without insurance. (Democrats contend their plan would cost just 37 cents...
...What do the Senators at the heart of the debate have to say? Edwards and Frist answered TIME.com's questions about their competing bills...
...their HMOs for up to $5 million. The Administration got Norwood to hold off sponsoring a nearly identical bill in the House, promising to strike a compromise. Imagine his surprise when he found that Bush aides had secretly written a bill more to their liking with G.O.P. Senator Bill Frist, limiting jury awards to $500,000. But even that didn't shake Norwood until last week, when he determined he'd been played for a chump and introduced his bill. The White House complains that Norwood was inflexible. This week the Democratic-controlled Senate will take up Edwards' bill. Republicans...
...patient protections proposed in both bills are nearly identical. In fact, Frist-Breaux-Jeffords represents the culmination of negotiations between members of the House and Senate from the last four years regarding what patient protections should be included in a Patients' Bill of Rights...
While both bills offer similar health care protections, the Kennedy-Edwards bill would cost hard working Americans nearly 45 percent more than the Frist-Breaux-Jeffords bill. Over 10 years, the cost of their bill would add an additional $240 billion in health care costs for Americans, with much of that increase going straight to the pockets of trial lawyers. We mustn't let trial lawyers stand in the way of providing better health care for Americans. We simply can't afford to pass their bill as written...