Frank Pallone: “The gentlewoman points out, makes a very good point I should say, with regard to the HMO reform, and that is that, as we…”

“The gentlewoman points out, makes a very good point I should say, with regard to the HMO reform, and that is that, as we know, back in August, there was so much heat, if you will, on the Republicans to deal with the issue of managed care reform, so many constituents who were clamoring that they take up the issue that they finally did just on one day with a very brief debate on the House floor allow the issue to come up. But what they did as a result of that was to pass a bill that was actually worse than the status quo. I have not been dwelling that much on that, although I think we should talk about it a little bit because when it went over to the Senate, they would not even take that sham bill up. So we are faced in a situation now where they will not even bring it up again because they think that, you know, circumstances have changed and the public is not paying as much attention to that, which I think is garbage. There is no question that the public is still very much concerned about it.”