Bob Menendez: “Yet it is the Republican majority's lack of governmental intervention that has let the abuses take place over the years…”

“Yet it is the Republican majority's lack of governmental intervention that has let the abuses take place over the years of their majority in the HMOs across the country. It is only when Democrats clamored for patient protection that they came forth with the fig leaf they produced today. One mother in my district came to me because her child had been denied necessary rehabilitative treatment after surgery, and now that child will live with the damaging effects of this denial for the rest of his life. The Republicans' bill gives that family no relief, no enforcement mechanism. That is not family values. Today HMOs have all of the protection and none of the responsibility. We want to give patients protection. We want to make sure HMOs are responsible for their actions. We want to preserve what is trusted by Americans, their relationship with their doctor. We want to give them those choices. We want to make sure that a doctor is making those decisions. Mr. Speaker, that is why I join the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske), a Republican, in supporting the Ganske-Dingell bill.”