James Traficant: “I support the rule; I also support the Democrat substitute, and if it fails, I will support the Republican bill. Both…”

“I support the rule; I also support the Democrat substitute, and if it fails, I will support the Republican bill. Both bills are better than the current system, and the need for reform is greater than Democrat and Republican posturing. Doctors should make decisions on our health care, not businessmen. Patients should be able to choose the doctor they want. Insurance companies and business managers without medical degrees should not be delivering our health care system. Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues, this current system is not managed care; this system in America is managed cost. Dollars are all they see, not pain, not disease, not people, not children, not cancer, not cures; they see dollars. The Congress of the United States is appropriately making necessary changes today, and these business people have to understand that the American people want a doctor, not an accountant, when they have a gall bladder problem, I say to my colleagues. And hospitals should not be throwing them out because of dollar concerns; it should be predicated on sound medical practice. It is a shame when Congress has to intervene, but America has gone from the Hippocratic oath to hypocrisy in a managed cost health care system. I will support whatever survives; it is better than the animal that still lives.”