Political Quotes

“I thank our Democratic leader for allowing us to take the first hour tonight to talk about the Patients' Bill of Rights. I know that we have been talking about this for many years now it seems like, not only the last Congress but also last year and this year. We actually have a conference committee that is meeting now and had their first meeting. The concern has been expressed. It took that conference committee a good while to meet since it was appointed last year, and the concern was that the conference committee was not reflective of the final vote on the House floor. But be that as it may, that is the way life is. And so now a number of us are trying to make sure that we continue the effort to have real managed care reform in this Congress, not next year, because the issues are so important. American people support the need for real HMO reform. In fact, last year, with the bipartisan support of the Norwood-Dingell Patients' Bill of Rights bill, I think most Americans felt like we were going to see some Federal consumer protections. And yet, what we have seen is a bill passed in the Senate that was much weaker even than current law but that the American people supported. The Kaiser Family Foundation shows that 58 percent of Americans are very worried and somewhat worried that if they become sick their health care plan will be more concerned about saving money than providing the best treatment.”