Robert Torricelli: “during my nearly 5 years in the Senate I have heard the debate of managed care reform many times. I have participated in…”

“during my nearly 5 years in the Senate I have heard the debate of managed care reform many times. I have participated in repeating statistics, engaged in legal analyses, participated in political analyses, all of which convinced me a long time ago of the need for this Patients' Bill of Rights. But there is no substituting that which many of my colleagues have brought to this Chamber; that is, the life experience of American families with the system as it is currently designed and how it has dealt with the tragedies of their own lives. Many of my colleagues have brought the experiences of frustrated families: People who get up every morning, go to work, pay for medical insurance, and participate in a managed care plan, only to find that in a moment of crisis in their own families, that which they purchased, that which they have relied upon, was not available to them. As do my colleagues, I want to now share with you just two stories that give meaning to all the statistics and illustrate all the failures of the system.”