Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in the bioterrorism conference report, House leadership managed to put in a new provision that would allow Medicare HMOs more time to decide whether or not to continue offering health plans. This would allow HMOs to delay for 2 rac{1}{2} months telling senior citizens if they will continue to offer health insurance to them. Is this not a bit out of place? We are going to have a Medicare provision in legislation that helps the country prepare for a bioterrorism attack. This is what causes the American people to wonder what in the world we do here. We have a bill on the floor dealing with bioterrorism and suddenly it is also a bill that deals with Medicare HMOs. Here is a Medicare provision in legislation that helps prepare the country for a bioterrorist attack. Strange, because the Medicare+Choice program is wholly unrelated to bioterrorism. This provision was not considered by a committee. This provision was not considered in the underlying bill in the House or the Senate. It was added to the conference report at the very last minute. This is just another example of how the leadership is able to circumvent the established process and of the way business is done in this House. The only purpose, repeat, the only purpose of this provision is to help the insurance industry by giving HMOs more time to calculate revenue and estimate profits for next year.”