Steve Rothman: “today the special interests are swarming around this Capitol to defeat HMO reform, reform that will hold the HMOs…”

“today the special interests are swarming around this Capitol to defeat HMO reform, reform that will hold the HMOs accountable for their actions. The American people of both political parties want to make their health care decisions with themselves and their doctors and not with some accounting clerk, who is neither a doctor or a nurse or other health care professional, make that decision which often denies them the care that they paid for with their insurance premiums, where the accounting clerk often gets an incentive for denying that care. Both political parties have put forth a bill to reform HMOs, but the special interests are now swarming over this Capitol to deny the right of the American people to get what they paid for when they paid their insurance premiums, the right to see the specialists they need, the right to know that they can go to the emergency room and not be turned away, the right that their doctor can send them somewhere and know that the patient that they send will get the care they deserve. I will save the special interests some trouble coming to my office. The people of Bergen and Hudson Counties, New Jersey want HMO reform, and they will not let the special interests stop us from doing the right thing.”