Don Nickles: “My point is, let's be very careful not to do damage to the system, not to do damage to a quality health care system that…”

“My point is, let's be very careful not to do damage to the system, not to do damage to a quality health care system that is far from perfect. Let's do some things to make sure that we increase the number of people who have insurance. Let's not do anything that would increase the number of uninsured. That is doing a very serious harm. If anybody says, hey, this bill has so much momentum, so let's pass it regardless of what it costs or what the consequences are, I beg to differ. It is worth spending a little bit of time to try to be at least responsible in this area. Let's not do damage. Let's not supersede the States. Let's not act as if the Federal Government knows best: Sorry States, we are going to take over the regulation of your health care system because we know better. Every person here who works in this system for very long knows that we do not know better. We do a crummy job. HCFA does a crummy job in administering Medicare. They are way behind even in enforcement and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability Act. Some States still aren't in compliance. HCFA is supposed to take over regulation of that act. If they haven't done that, how in the world can they do it for private care? They could not do it. Let's pass a positive bill. I stand ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do that. I am willing to spend a lot of time to work out a real bipartisan bill, one that has support by a majority of the Members on both sides.”