Greg Ganske: “today I am initiating a discharge petition to force the House to debate House Resolution 486, a rule for consideration…”

“today I am initiating a discharge petition to force the House to debate House Resolution 486, a rule for consideration of managed care reform bills. House Resolution 486 provides for the consideration of the Dingell- Ganske Patients' Bill of Rights, and would allow both the manager's substitute amendment and a substitute by one of the leading Republican advocates of managed care reform, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Charlie Norwood). The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) could offer the bill developed by the Hastert task force or some other reform plan. Finally, the rule provides for one motion to recommit, with or without instructions. Mr. Speaker, this week the House may debate House Resolution 4250, the patient protection bill developed by the Hastert task force. This bill just became available for review a few days ago. It has serious problems. It is not the best bill. I have many concerns which I will not outline today, but let me give just one example. A year or so ago when we passed patient protection legislation as part of the Medicare reform bill, we banned what are called gag rules. These are rules that HMOs set up that prevent doctors or nurses or other health professionals from telling the patients all of the information or treatment options they need. In our Medicare bill, we said that HMOs could not prohibit or restrict communications.…”