41.   Both Ashcroft and Santorum voted for a Senate-passed Republican measure containing limited patient protections, including a restricted right to sue HMOs.

42.   Congress has skirmished for years over patient protection laws.

43.   Earlier, the House rejected a GOP-backed patient protection bill that included new rights to sue, but only in federal court and only in limited circumstances.

44.   Federal law now prohibits patients in federally regulated plans from suing their insurers and exempts insurers from patient protections approved by state legislatures.

45.   Federal law now prohibits patients in federally regulated plans from suing their insurers, and exempts insurers from patient protections approved by state legislatures.

46.   He said Democrats had offered some concessions to GOP concerns about giving the federal government more regulatory power over health plans at the expense of state patient protection laws.

47.   House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has promised to bring the patient protection measures to the floor sometime next month.

48.   House Republican leaders failed Tuesday to produce a strategy on patient protection legislation, leaving the GOP struggling on the politically popular issue.

49.   In addition to the patient protections, the GOP measure includes several tax breaks designed to make health care more affordable.

50.   Last year the House of Representatives passed HMO patient protection legislation that included giving patients the power to sue their HMO.