Jon S. Corzine: “I am honored to rise today, particularly with the Presiding Officer who is in the Chair, to support a motion to proceed…”

“I am honored to rise today, particularly with the Presiding Officer who is in the Chair, to support a motion to proceed to S. 1052, the Bipartisan Patients' Bill of Rights. I commend Senators McCain, Edwards, and Kennedy for the tremendous effort they put in to develop a strong, enforceable, and bipartisan bill with the support of over 500 consumer provider and health care groups, as the Presiding Officer just demonstrated to us with the A's. More importantly, I commend the American people because the American people know what makes common sense with regard to the need to provide everyone quality health care that puts the relationship between the doctor, the nurse, and the patient first. Over the last 30 years, managed care organizations have come to dominate our health care system. These organizations both pay for and make decisions about medical care, often preempting the fundamental relationship in the health care equation between doctor and patient. However, unlike doctors, nurses, or almost anybody in our society, HMOs, managed care institutions, are not held accountable for their medical decisions and treatment decisions. We just spent 8 weeks in the Senate talking about education and accountability. We need to talk about accountability within the context of the patient-doctor relationship, and that is what this debate will be all about if we can ever get to the bill.…”