Byron Dorgan: “I would like to just talk briefly about two short items today, the first of which is the Patients' Bill of Rights…”

“I would like to just talk briefly about two short items today, the first of which is the Patients' Bill of Rights legislation, which we hope the Senate will take up perhaps as early as this week. Some suggest that there isn't a need for legislation to ensure the quality of care provided by managed care plans. They believe, I suppose, as some insurance companies do, that things are just fine in managed care and health care in this country. But others, and that includes most of the American people, know better. They worry that health care in this country is now often directed not by doctors or other medical professionals but by some accountant in an insurance office 500 or 1,000 miles away from where the patient is. Let me describe, as we have nearly every day for some weeks, a case that illustrates why the American people are so anxious about what is happening in our health care system. This is the example of Mr. Vaughn Dashiell.”