10 yrs of Frist Senate votes show pattern aiding HCA's business interests

Sunday, 12/04/05

Frist votes aid HCA's business interests

Review of 10 years in Senate shows pattern of favoring firm

By TODD PACK
Staff Writer



http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/BUSINESS01/512040366/1044/BUSINESS

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is pushing a "healthy America" plan that includes tax breaks to help the poor buy insurance and legal limits on excessive jury awards that Frist says hurt access to care. Frist's plan would do something else besides help the poor and reduce what he says are frivolous lawsuits. It would help make money for HCA Inc., the Nashville-based hospital company that's been the foundation of the Frist family's wealth.

Frist, considered a possible presidential candidate in 2008, was dogged for years by complaints that his financial stake in HCA created a conflict of interest. This summer, he sold his stock in the company, which his father and brother helped start, but did so one month before the price took a sharp dive, raising new questions about his intentions.

Frist's office said the Tennessee Republican wasn't available to comment directly for this story, but he has said in the past that his connections to HCA have not influenced his actions in the Senate.

Still, an examination of Frist's voting record over his nearly 11 years in the Senate shows a pattern of supporting bills friendly to HCA and to hospitals in general. His votes typically have followed the Republican Party line.

Whaddaya wanna bet old Trent will get the LEADER job back sooner than he planned?


This bit was rich:
Other bills supported by Frist have given hospitals more money for treating seniors and curbed development of physician-owned specialty hospitals that compete with HCA.
He's also helped HCA in less obvious ways. Several years ago, the Tennessee Republican fought a Democratic-sponsored version of a "patients' bill of rights" that would have allowed patients to sue their HMOs and collect unlimited damages.

Physician groups such as the American Medical Association supported the bill, but Frist, a former heart-lung transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, opposed it.


Thanks for posting that article--it is a very complete account of what the CatKiller is up to, and all about.

;)

You know, the Senate is very collegial, and the Democrats were nicer to Trent than the GOP were after he got canned. When his house blew away, the FIRST CALL HE GOT was from...JOHN KERRY. Teresa sent planeloads of goods down his way to help him and his neighbors.

Let's hope he remembers who his friends are...

Ah, he's toast anyway. The extreme right hates him now, which means he'll do badly in the Repuke primaries.

:evilgrin: