31.   The American Medical Association urged patients to join doctors in lobbying Congress for strong patient protections.

32.   The decision coincides with patient protection legislation in Congress that focuses on denial of treatment by managed care plans such as HMOs.

33.   The Food and Drug Administration last spring halted all six gene therapy trials that Isner was conducting, citing a long list of alleged violations of patient protection rules.

34.   The House version, backed by President Bush, gives narrower rights to sue and would overrule some of the patient protection laws passed by states.

35.   The House Republican bill, while not as far-reaching as the Democratic bill, extends more patient protections to more people than its Senate Republican counterpart.

36.   The move enraged and startled consumer advocates, who said it would weaken patient protections.

37.   The nearly unanimous vote followed an earlier rejection of attempts to add a tax cut measure to the patient protection bill.

38.   The supposed repairs passed by Senate Republicans were a sham, covering a fraction of HMO patients and sloughing off essential patient protections.

39.   Two different patient protection bills have passed in the House and Senate, which would have to reconcile the versions before a law can be enacted.

40.   Unlike other long-stalled issues, such as campaign finance reform, the patient protection debate has a direct impact on people.