I hope that we can pursue the most economically prudent model.

We supported legislation introduced by Senator Bill Nelson of Florida aimed at curbing the use of deceptive advertising practices.

I'm very proud, Mr. Chairman, of what the Committee did on that.

Government is here for a reason. And if you let insurance companies self-regulate, God help us all.

that's one of the most important things that we can be discussing right now, because there's a lot of anticompetition in the healthcare marketplace.

For too long, too many healthcare decisions have been made behind closed doors, with industry profits--not the patient's best interests--in mind.

the practices going on in America today among health insurance are the most anticompetitive that we have.

The Justice Department has been utterly lax over the last 8 years.

Well, Mr. Chairman, if--any other questions from me would be superfluous. I think we've seen there's an inability of the system to react to a circumstance to try to head it off in the first place.

Well, obviously, it isn't working.

So, is the FTC impotent to attack these scams?

The purpose of this hearing is to see if the U.S. Government is protecting the consumer in these down times.