Political Quotes

“it is clear that all of us agree that protection for patients of health care delivery systems is very important. Patients need to get quick, independent second opinions when their insurance company or their HMO denies care. Women need unimpeded access to obstetricians or gynecologists. Children need pediatric experts making decisions about their care and providing them care. Patients need to go to the closest emergency room and be confident that their insurance company or HMO will pay for the care. Those things ought to be understood as the basis on which we all agree. To say, as some have, that those of us on this side of the aisle are not concerned about patients is just flat wrong. I have spoken in the past about patients who are employees of small business, who are owners of small businesses, who are the families of small business owners. They do not get patient protection because they cannot afford insurance. They cannot even be patients because they do not have the care. We need to figure out how we can assure patient protections, get more people covered by health care insurance, health care plans, HMOs, and give them the protections they need within those plans. This bill is about balance. As we provide patient protections, we need to be concerned about how much we increase the cost of care because at some point these costs will start to bite.”