Greg Ganske: “Mr. Speaker, I want to talk tonight about a topic that I have come to the floor many, many times in the last several…”

“Mr. Speaker, I want to talk tonight about a topic that I have come to the floor many, many times in the last several years to speak about, and that is on the issue of patient protection legislation as it relates to health maintenance organizations, HMOs. Mr. Speaker, I remember a few years ago, it must be about 4 years, that my wife and I went to a movie called As Good as It Gets. We were in Des Moines, Iowa, at a theater and I saw something happen that I do not think I have ever seen at a theater. During that scene, when Helen Hunt talks to Jack Nicholson about the type of care that her son in the movie, with asthma, was getting from her HMO and she uses some rather spicy language that I cannot say here on the floor of the House of Representatives, people stood up and clapped and applauded in that movie theater. I do not think I have ever seen that before. Mr. Speaker, that was an indication 4 years ago that there was a problem with the type of care that HMOs were delivering.”