David Thomas: “some of this debate has literally taken my breath away. If anyone listening to this debate wonders how in the world…”

“some of this debate has literally taken my breath away. If anyone listening to this debate wonders how in the world Republicans could get away with treating Americans the way we do, listening to the Democrats, I ask them to just look at the calendar. This is the pre-election warm-up. Remember Medicare? Pre-election, Republicans were going to destroy Medicare. Well, the American people did not listen to them. We were returned as the majority. And as chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, we prepared a Medicare reform package that was passed in my subcommittee 11-0, no Democrats dissenting. Prior to the election, it would destroy Medicare. After the election, post-politics, everything is okay. Today we are debating patient protections. Here we go again. It is pre-election time. Have things changed out there in America? Of course they have. In 1988, health care inflation was 18½ percent. Today it is less than 5 percent. Why? To a very good extent, just 5 years ago, in 1993, about a majority of Americans, about half, got their health care from managed care. Today, if they get it from their employer, it is about 85 percent. So health care markets have changed. Have there been distortions? Yes, there have been distortions. Do there need to be corrections? Of course there need to be corrections. But when we unite egos and politics, we get some pretty ugly offspring.…”