Political Quotes

“I want to follow up on what the gentlewoman from Connecticut said. This is about Whose side are you on? If you're with the gentleman from Georgia, you are on the side of the big insurance companies, and you'll want to make sure that they make bigger profits, that they get bigger bonuses, that they pass out bigger dividends and more money to their CEOs; or if you're against this amendment and you want to go with the health care reform bill that we have, you're with the little guy--with the consumer, with the average American. Right now, the law says that consumers have to receive more value for their premium dollars. Insurance companies are required to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on medical care and health care quality improvements rather than on the bonuses and the salaries and the dividends for the CEOs and the stockholders. That's what this is all about. You're going to hand back to the insurance companies control over what happens with the money that you paid in your premium so they can do whatever they want with it and make whatever profit they want. I think it's wrong. One of the major issues that we face this year is affordability and what consumers are getting for their buck, so to speak. With health care reform, we made health insurance more affordable, and it will become more so as this kicks in further. At the same time, we wanted to make sure that when you spend your premium you get something back: you get good value, and you get good benefits.…”