Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. Last decade, when I was a State senator of Pennsylvania, I took on HMOs and plans that made decisions by accountants and MBAs and not MDs. It was important to do that because we found that doctors could not make decisions even though they were supposedly empowered to do that. Instead, there were boards that would make decisions for them. And now here we are with deja vu all over again. We're about to have 15 Presidential appointees--even under the advice of both Chambers of Congress--none of whom are involved with medicine, making decisions with regard to who makes decisions for you in terms of what gets paid and how much gets paid to doctors and hospitals. But as it goes through, what happens if there's a decision that says it's not going to be covered? Can you call the board, itself? No. Can your doctor call the board? No. Can your hospital call the board? No. Can your Member of Congress call the board? No. But, in fact, it would take an act of Congress passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President to override them. So who is this panel, and what decisions can they make? By law, it's people who are involved with finance, economics, hospital administration, reimbursements, some physicians, health professionals, pharmacy benefit managers, employers, people involved with outcome research and medical health services and economics.…”