Frank Pallone: “One of the things that the gentlewoman has really brought out, and I think is so important, is that the emphasis, again…”

“One of the things that the gentlewoman has really brought out, and I think is so important, is that the emphasis, again, has to be on the quality of care and not so much on the cost of it. We understand that managed care reform has brought great cost savings, but the bottom line is that now it is just out of hand. If we implemented these patient protections that we are talking about, the cost really is very minimal. I know that that is an argument that is used that, oh, this is going to increase costs, but I do not believe it when we are looking at the kind of common sense approaches that we are talking about here that there is any significant cost increase. It seems to me, in the long run, we will probably save money, because a lot of it is preventative, and we end up helping people so they do not get sicker.”