Political Quotes

“It is good to be on the floor with my good friend and colleague, the ranking member, Congressman Pallone. I know his heart is solid and I know he believes that we are challenging some privacy concerns, and I take that in the spirit intended. As a Republican, I was an early supporter of one of our former colleague's--Sue Myrick's--Mental Health Parity Act. And the whole intent of that, for many of us, was to say mental health illness is an illness and should be accepted as an illness. But what we have done under the Federal code is to separate it. So I think the intent of what we are trying to do is not separate it and make it part of the health records. We have heard the debate on both sides, but that is the basic premise from which I come. And we have heard the testimony of people for whom the information was not shared with the regular doctor versus the mental health, and then prescriptions occurring and then catastrophic events. The intent of this legislation is to help patients and to help providers better take care of their patients. This is not about taking away privacy but taking care of people. It is about making sure people have the appropriate level of privacy for the services they are seeking. We don't create extra privacy barriers so that people with heart disease, HIV, or diabetes can keep their doctors in the dark and withhold critical information relevant to the insurer benefits that they are using.…”