XXXX Voted For A GOP Amendment To Protect Small Businesses From Health Care Suits. In 2001, XXXX voted for an amendment that would add that employers who offered health insurance coverage to their employees and who employed at least 2 and not more than 15 people would be given the same protections from lawsuits that this bill will give to physicians, other health care professionals, and hospitals. [S 1052, Vote 215, 6/29/01] XXXX Voted For A Republican Move To Recommit The Patients’ Bill Of Rights. In 2001, XXXX voted an amendment that would make the research and experimentation tax credit permanent. [S 1052, Vote 214, 6/29/01] XXXX Voted For A GOP Amendment To Add Legal Protections For Doctors Providing Pro Bono Services. In 2001, XXXX voted for an amendment that would add that notwithstanding any other provision of law, "no health care professional shall be liable for the performance of, or the failure to perform, any duty in providing pro bono medical services to a medically underserved or indigent individual." Supporters of the motion argued that the amendment was extraneous and the issue had been addressed by the Coverdell Volunteer Protection Act of 1997. [S 1052, Vote 212, 6/29/01] XXXX Voted For A GOP Amendment To Apply Patient Protection Amendments To Collective Bargaining Plans. In 2001, XXXX voted for an amendment that would require that the general effective date (October 1, 2002) of the bill's amendments to the Public Health Services Act (PHSA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), as they pertain to group health plans, would apply to group health plans established through collective bargaining agreements. [S 1052, Vote 211, 6/29/01] XXXX Voted to Kill the Funding to Pay for Patients’ Bill of Rights Legislation. In 2001, XXXX voted for an obvious Republican attempt to kill the PBOR by eliminating the bill’s source of funding. [S 1052, Vote 210, 6/29/01] XXXX Voted For A GOP Amendment To Limit Health Care Causes Of Actions To Federal Court. In 2001, XXXX voted an amendment that would require causes of action under this Act to be brought exclusively in Federal court. In cases involving medically reviewable decisions, damages would be determined under the State law of the State in which the injury occurred. If a State had not enacted specific limits on health plan or issuer liability, any limits it had created for other health care entities would apply until it enacted such limits. [S 1052, Vote 207, 6/28/01] XXXX Voted For A Loophole to Exempt Health Plans from Liability. In 2001, XXXX voted for a Republican amendment which would have forced some workers to either: (1) choose a good health care plan and agree that their employer cannot be held accountable even when the employer is involved in medical decisions, or (2) choose a bad health care plan where they could hold their employer responsible for medical decisions, or (3) accept incentives, such as money, to not sign up for a health care plan at all. [S 1052, Vote 206, 6/28/01] XXXX Voted to Hold Designated Decision Makers Liable For Plan Decisions. In 2001, XXXX voted for an amendment under which an employer could have a designated decision maker (DDM) that would assume liability for plan decisions, including any liability for actions taken by the employer. The amendment would also strike the catch-all causes of action that this bill will allow to be brought in Federal and State courts against employers or DDMs, as the case may be, for failing "to exercise ordinary care in the performance of a duty" (for Federal suits) or "to otherwise perform a duty under the terms and conditions of the plan with respect to a claim for benefits of a participant or beneficiary" (for State suits). [S 1052, Vote 205, 6/28/01] XXXX Supported Capping Fees for Personal Injury Lawyers. In 2001, XXXX voted for an amendment to cap attorney fees in medical malpractice cases in which a plaintiff is awarded more than $100,000 at 15 percent or less of the total amount awarded, which would discourage lawyers from taking on these cases. [S 1052, Vote 204, 6/28/01] XXXX Voted Against Deferring To State Laws That “Substantially Comply” With Patient Protections. In 2001, XXXX voted against an amendment that would amend the bill to provide that if a State were to have a mandate that "substantially complies" with one of the mandated benefits in the bill, then its mandate would not be 179