Political Quotes

“last night, we heard our President talk all about accountability. He wants our schools and our teachers to be more accountable to their students and the parents. This literally patterns after what is in a lot of our State laws and in the State of Texas. He wants government to be more accountable to its citizens, and I think we all agree with both of those premises. Mr. Speaker, I also appreciate the President's support for HMO reform, and hopefully similar to what the law is in the State of Texas. HMOs should be accountable to their patients, just like schools should be accountable to their students and parents, and government should be accountable to the taxpayers and citizens. President Bush told us last night that he wants to promote quality health care through a strong, independent review organization, and I agree. The independent review organizations had been instrumental in the success of the Patients' Bill of Rights in the State of Texas. But the independent review organizations, the IROs, are powerless if health plans can ignore their recommendations without consequences. By providing legal remedies in State courts, patients have a layer of protection that ensures health plans will do the right thing. As much as the President talks about frivolous lawsuits, we have not seen that thing in Texas called a frivolous lawsuit. In fact, after 3 years on the books, our patient protections there have been less than five lawsuits filed in 3 years, less than five.”