Frank Pallone: “I wanted to talk briefly about the Republicans' managed care reform bill, which to be accurate I like to call the…”

“I wanted to talk briefly about the Republicans' managed care reform bill, which to be accurate I like to call the Insurance Industry Protection Act. This Republican version of managed care reform is in my opinion easily one of the worst pieces of legislation the Republicans have put forward since they took control of Congress in 1994. For weeks prior to the introduction of the Republicans' Insurance Industry Protection Act, supporters of the Democrat's alternative, the Patients' Bill of Rights, were speaking out about what we knew was coming. What we expected they would do is to introduce a bill that was greatly watered down as a sort of cosmetic fix with regard to managed care reform. We expected the Republican leadership, who really are not interested in passing a managed care reform bill, would come out with a bill that would purport to provide patient protections, but really would not.”