Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing today is a sorry spectacle. We are voting on the same bill the House already voted on a little over a year ago. The one difference is that there is a new bill number. And, in those 14 months that have passed, our Republican colleagues have not changed one line in their bill to respond to the problems of increasing insurance costs to the doctors while protecting injured patients.

Instead, they are sticking with the same legislation, legislation they know will not pass the Senate. A bill they know will trample on the rights of legitimate patients, and will provide unprecedented protections to HMOs, the real beneficiaries of this legislation. This legislation is the exact opposite of the Patients' Bill of Rights, which would have provided real protections to doctors and patients alike in the struggle against cookie-cutter medicine foisted upon them by HMOs, if the Republicans had not successfully defeated it.

Let's be clear, this Republican bill does nothing to end frivolous lawsuits, just responsible ones. The bill limits awards for honest claims. It imposes new hurdles on aggrieved patients. And the bill does nothing to address the real problem -- skyrocketing insurance premiums sending profits directly into the coffers of those companies.

I would like to point out that this bill is brought up during "Cover the Uninsured Week." To say that shielding HMOs from lawsuits will help cover the uninsured is a huge stretch for even the most vivid imagination.

If the Republican leadership was really interested in helping those without healthcare insurance, they would take up legislation like the bills Democrats introduced today -- the FamilyCare Act and the Medicare Early Buy-in -- and build upon existing successful insurance programs to give families dependable, affordable coverage. And they would take up the Small Business Health Insurance Promotion Act which targets small businesses with real subsidies to purchase solid insurance products.

Democratic proposals take us forward, providing meaningful coverage without trampling the rights of consumers, eroding protections, or causing millions to lose their existing coverage. The Republican bill, and the other bills we will see this week, pay lip service to helping consumers, while richly rewarding their health insurance company allies.