Political Quotes

“we are hearing a lot about bipartisan efforts this year, and I hope that is true. But last year as chairman of the Republican Health Tax Force in the 105th Congress our Speaker produced a bill that was not bipartisan and did not become law because of that purpose. I hope the effort to work on a bipartisan matter on important issues like HMO reform is not a repeat of last year. I do join my colleagues on the Democratic side saying we need to save Social Security first, but I want to talk about the general issue of bipartisanship. This year, with the Republican majority even smaller, in part due to their inaction on HMO reform, the time is now to pass those reforms. This year we need to have a Patients' Bill of Rights that protects patients, eliminating the gag clause, providing timely appeals, guaranteeing access to specialists and emergency rooms, allowing doctors determine what is medically necessary, but also, more importantly, making the decision maker for our health care responsible. Accountability is what we need. If the doctor is not making that decision, then whoever is making that decision needs to be accountable and they need to have the liability. Let us see how this bill passes, and, if it does not have that accountability, then it is a sham.”