Atlanta, GA -- Michael Coles, candidate for the United States Senate, today responded to Paul Coverdell’s accusations, first noted in today’s Bill Shipp’s Georgia, that Coles is a “Kennedy Liberal”.1 “Paul Coverdell is stuck repeating his campaign slogans from 1992, calling his opponent a Ted Kennedy Liberal while ignoring the facts,” Coles stated. “Take health care for instance. I have called for returning the power to regulate the health insurance industry to the states while the Coverdell and Kennedy health care plans being discussed in Congress call for the creation of even more federal regulations.” Specifically, Coles is calling for eliminating the provision of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that preempts state medical malpractice laws. The Coles plan would reduce the power of Washington bureaucrats and return more oversight of the health care industry to the states. Both the Coverdell and Kennedy plans would expand federal regulations over group health care plans by adding at least 19 new federal mandates.2 The Coverdell plan would even create a new federal agency to devise “quality ratings” for HMOs.3 The Coverdell and Kennedy plans also would allow the federal government to fine business and health plans that do not comply with the new federal regulations.4 Michael Coles does not think federal fines will improve health care in Georgia and sees such fines as just another excuse to raise more taxes. “Clearly, Paul Coverdell has spent too much time in Washington with Ted Kennedy. On this issue, their big-government positions are not all that different, and they are both wrong,” noted Coles. “My own position on health care is clear. We should repeal the federal law that prevents the Georgia General Assembly from writing laws regulating HMOs in Georgia and prevents Georgia’s State Courts from enforcing those laws.”
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