Frank Pallone: “I think the answer is very simple. That is that the Republican leadership in the case of the Patients' Bill of Rights…”

“I think the answer is very simple. That is that the Republican leadership in the case of the Patients' Bill of Rights, the HMO reform, simply does not want to bring up the bill because they do not want it to pass. They know if the Patients' Bill of Rights, the HMO reform, comes up and it is considered, it will pass, so they exercise their leadership by not bringing it up. I think the reason they do it is very simple: They are beholden to the insurance companies. They are beholden to the HMOs. They spend, the HMOs spend millions of dollars on advertising and influencing congressional races. They do not want this legislation brought to the floor because they know it will pass.”