Frank Pallone: “this evening I would like to talk about health care and my concern that in the first 100 days of the Bush…”

“this evening I would like to talk about health care and my concern that in the first 100 days of the Bush administration, we have seen no action, effectively, on the major health care concerns that affect the American people, that my constituents are talking to me about and that many of my colleagues in Congress, in the House of Representatives, not only on the Democratic side but also on the Republican side, have identified, issues that we have identified as important that need to be addressed in this Congress. I want to mention three tonight. There are many, but I want to mention three, if I could: one is the need for a Medicare prescription drug benefit; the second is the need to reform HMOs, the so-called Patients' Bill of Rights; and the third is the mounting problem of so many Americans, maybe 45 million Americans at this point, who have no health insurance. Before I get to those three points, though, I probably should point out that the President's budget sends sort of a defining message with regard to health care by essentially not only dealing with some of these problems effectively but also by threatening through the size of the tax cut that he recommends, which is primarily for the wealthy and corporate interests, to possibly raid or effectively raid the Medicare as well as the Social Security trust fund.”