Eva M. Clayton: “the way that Americans choose and obtain and pay their physician has changed drastically over the last 10 years. Ten…”

“the way that Americans choose and obtain and pay their physician has changed drastically over the last 10 years. Ten years ago, less than 30 percent of the people with health care insurance coverage were in managed care programs. Today, approximately 75 percent of insured employees are covered by managed care plans. A large amount of that 75 percent is questioning whether they are served well by that system. The result is a health care system which is dominated by economic tools, limited budgets, limited hospital budgets, waiting hospital lines, waiting lines also with the managed care program. Many managed care constraints now limit what we can do. Our goal must be to provide health care with increased health care coverage for this country. This is a national challenge. In Congress, we need to meet that challenge. Supporting H.R. 3605, the Patients' Bill of Rights Act, is a first step in achieving health care reform. This bill will allow patients and doctors, not the insurance company, to control the length of stay, the quality of care. Mr. Speaker, I encourage you and my colleagues to join me in supporting of this bill.”