Frank Pallone: “I talked about the gag rule before where they do not allow or many of the HMOs do not allow the physicians to talk about…”

“I talked about the gag rule before where they do not allow or many of the HMOs do not allow the physicians to talk about procedures that are not covered by the insurance plan. In the GOP bill, a health plan would still be allowed to restrict communications between doctors and patients, because their bill only prohibits gagging doctors who contract directly with the HMO plan. What they do not tell you is that most doctors subcontract with health plans and their bill does not prohibit plans from gagging doctors who subcontract with plans. So here again we have got all these little quirks in their legislation, little exceptions and things that turn out to be big exceptions that still impact the majority of the people. There are similar things with the financial incentives, where most insurance companies can still create financial incentives for doctors who do not provide care. So, again, I have not stressed this too much, because I would have at least appreciated if the Senate would bring up any managed care reform bill and let us debate the issue the way we have tonight in this special order.”