Political Quotes

“I just wanted a one minute at an unusual time of the day because this House has passed one of the strongest HMO reform bills that I have seen. We passed it over a year ago, and yet this bill still languishes in its House-Senate conference committee. Obviously we need more effort to make sure that we pass a national HMO reform bill. This issue is important to the voters, and it has been, and that is why when I listened to the presidential debates last night, I heard it come up a number of times, how we needed a strong managed care reform or HMO reform bill. Let me set the record straight: the Texas legislature passed a bill in 1995 that was a strong HMO reform bill. In 1995, the Texas legislature passed a strong HMO reform bill. It was vetoed by Governor Bush. In 1997, they passed another bill that became law without his signature. Last night, listening to the debates, you would have thought there had been a lot of exercise in leadership on HMO reform in the Governor's office in Texas. What we need is strong leadership in the White House for an HMO reform bill, because it does not look like it is going to happen this year. So next year we will need it. Our bill, the Dingell-Norwood bill, was actually patterned after the Texas law of 1997.”