Political Quotes

“If I understand, the statement is that before we go home we need to address the Patients' Bill of Rights. It appears that there is a wide public sentiment in support of this. It isn't a partisan issue, by a long shot. All the polls suggest that the voters, almost uniformly--Democrats, Republicans, independents--believe that this is a critical and important issue. When I brought this issue to the State of Illinois and visited a hospital with a doctor, he told me a story of a woman bringing her son in complaining of headaches on the left side of his head. The doctor thought that a CAT scan was indicated to see if a tumor was present. Before he told the mother, he called the insurance company. They said they would not pay for it. The doctor had to go back into his office and tell the mother that he thought they didn't need to do anything. He was prohibited by the terms of his contract with the insurance company from even telling the mother that he had been overruled by the insurance company. Think of that--if you are bringing your son or daughter into a doctor, that you could be treated that way. What Senator Kennedy is suggesting, and many of us believe is important before we go home, before we address other issues on the floor: We should take up the Patients' Bill of Rights for that mother and the millions of others like her across America who are counting on us to do something substantive before we leave. I fully support the Senator.”