Frank Pallone: “let me say this evening that I will be talking about HMO reform and the need to address that issue before this House…”

“let me say this evening that I will be talking about HMO reform and the need to address that issue before this House adjourns in about four weeks, or at least is tentatively scheduled to adjourn after the first week in October. I am concerned that over the next four weeks that time will not be spent on the issues that the American people want addressed in this Congress, health care reform, HMO reform, education concerns, Social Security, environmental issues. There are so many issues that need to be addressed, and I am only going to talk about one of them tonight but I wanted to mention that the Democrats as a party are united behind a strong and a bold agenda which addresses the real challenges that face working families. I am very concerned that the Republican leadership is not going to address these issues. We need to strike out and say that these issues need to be addressed before we adjourn. The one that I would like to talk about tonight and that I think really is the most important because this is the one that I hear the most about from my constituents is HMO or managed care reform. Too many of my constituents at town hall meetings or at my district offices tell me about the horror stories, and there are many, where they have been denied necessary care because their HMO, their insurance company, has refused to pay for it.”