Peter Torkildsen: “when President Clinton began the process of creating a national health care reform plan, no effort was made to include…”

“when President Clinton began the process of creating a national health care reform plan, no effort was made to include the general public in the formulation process. In fact, the public was effectively locked out of the process. Virtually every meeting and discussion held by the Health Care Task Force was, despite public outrage, held in private behind locked doors, totally inaccessible to the American public. President Clinton is to be commended for bringing the vital issue of health care reform to the forefront of national debate. But bringing up the issue isn't enough. The American people deserve to see what decisions are made which will affect their health care. Next week I will be introducing the healthcare sunshine resolution which will require that all House committee and subcommittee hearings and markup sessions be open to the public and the media. This resolution will also encourage that the Senate and the administration to open all of their proceedings as well. This will be something of a first in the U.S. Congress.”