Political Quotes

“I thank my New Jersey colleague for being chair of our Health Care Task Force of the Democratic Caucus, and I think after what happened this last week and the American people have made very clear about what issues they want this Congress to work on. At the top of that list is managed care reform. Of course, I think we have heard not only that voice but that echo now for a number of years. And last year the Republican leadership failed to make the good-faith effort to pass meaningful HMO reform. In fact, the bill that we passed is what I called a sham bill that did nothing to protect patients. While it had a good name, the Patient Protection Act really did more to protect the insurance companies than anyone else. And I say that because actually it rolled back the State law in the State of Texas that the State of Texas had passed in 1997. And almost every one of the so-called patient protections had loopholes big enough to drive a car through. Fortunately, the Senate had enough sense not to force through that partisan bill that did not adequately protect patients, and this year it seems the roles are reversed. This year the Senate 'HELP' Committee passed a managed care bill along party lines and rejected 20 out of 22 Democratic amendments.”