Rick Hill: “I stand here in support of the bill and support of the rule. We need to pass this rule tonight because it is the only…”

“I stand here in support of the bill and support of the rule. We need to pass this rule tonight because it is the only way that we are going to get a chance to vote on this bill. Now, this is surely a controversial issue. Should doctors be able to bargain collectively on an equal footing with the insurance companies. I happen to think they should. An earlier Speaker said we have never exempted anybody else from anti-trust laws. But the truth of the matter is we did. When we passed McCarran-Ferguson, we gave special provisions to the insurance industry that they use today. Now, we have been debating HMO reform for over 2 years. Everybody says doctors, not bureaucrats, doctors, not adjusters, but doctors ought to be making medical decisions that impact their patients. Well, tonight, here is my colleagues' chance to empower doctors to be making those kind of medical decisions. But the only way we are going to do this is to pass this rule.”