George Miller: “Today the corporate special interests are responding to the call of the Republican leadership to get off their wallets.…”

“Today the corporate special interests are responding to the call of the Republican leadership to get off their wallets. Today they start spending millions of dollars, with the National Association of Manufacturers fly-in, to kill the bipartisan effort to pass a patients' bill of rights to protect people against the excesses of managed care, to make sure that people know that doctors are making the medical decisions and not insurance companies, to make sure that patients have a right to appeal the denial of services, to make sure that people understand that these medical decisions are theirs and between them and their doctors. But, no, the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate have told the special interests lobby to come to Washington to spend millions of dollars to deny us the right to have a bill that has over 220 cosponsors, Republicans and Democrats, who know that their constituents need these protections against managed care. We have got to respond to the need of our people, not to the corporate interests and their million-dollar campaign.”