Jack Kingston: “this is what I call Clinton health care question No. 357: ``Will I have the same patient/doctor relationship under the…”

“this is what I call Clinton health care question No. 357: ``Will I have the same patient/doctor relationship under the Clinton health care plan that I have right now?'' No; absolutely not. Why not? Well, your physician will no longer be working for you; he or she will be working for a network who works under the guidelines of a State-run government alliance. The alliance has a budget which is set by the national health board, which is a central bureaucracy in Washington, DC, which will tell these alliances in your neighborhood, in your city, in your county, how much they can spend on health care, Now, what does that mean to you, the patient? It means that when you go to see your physician, that the more time he or she spends with you the less time they can spend with other patients. The less patients they see, the less likelihood that they will make that State-mandated budget. Therefore, what is going to happen is your physician, if he or she is having to see 20 people a day now, they will be told that you have to see 30 people a day in order for us to make this Government-mandated, centralized budget. Mr. Speaker, the alternative, the obvious alternative, is the Michel plan; it keeps that doctor-patient relationship which we Americans treasure so highly.”