Byron Dorgan: “It is about the right of patients to get the health care they deserve and that they think they have under their managed…”

“It is about the right of patients to get the health care they deserve and that they think they have under their managed care plans. Often however, that care is actually denied them. Patients ought to have a right to understand all of their medical options for treatment, not just the cheapest. They ought to have a right to medically necessary care without arbitrary HMO interference. They ought to have a right to go to an emergency room when they have an emergency. They ought to have a right to see a specialist when they have a need to consult a specialist. They ought to have the right to a fair and speedy process for resolving disputes. Let me see if I can use a couple of pictures to describe what these rights mean. This young child was born with a horrible facial defect. A cleft palate which is a horrible defect of the top lip. Plastic surgeons say in about 50 percent of the cases, a managed care organization says this is something that is not medically necessary to correct. It's correction is not medically necessary? Imagine having this child and being told by a managed care organization that it is not medically necessary to correct this defect!”