Jim Sensenbrenner: “this is a very craftily drafted motion. The effect of its adoption will be to increase health care costs and further…”

“this is a very craftily drafted motion. The effect of its adoption will be to increase health care costs and further restrict availability of health care to people all around the country. First, it will increase health care costs in that patients of HMOs and the employers that sponsor the HMO-type coverage will not be able to benefit from what the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be a reduction of somewhere between 25-30 percent of professional liability insurance. So there will be higher professional liability insurance premiums paid by the doctors who practice in the HMOs which will be passed on to their patients and which will be passed on to their employers. This is an incentive for doctors to leave practicing with HMOs. And as we know, HMOs generally save money. Every Member who gets these statements from our insurance company that says ``This is not a bill'' on it, there are negotiated savings that would not be there if the doctor left the HMO as a result of this motion to recommit passing, and thus qualifying for the lower insurance premiums available, or where the protections of this bill would be available to doctors practicing outside of HMOs. By increasing the cost of HMOs, more and more employers will decide that it is too expensive for them to continue to provide health insurance coverage. So the protections to patients will go down as fewer and fewer employers can afford the coverage through the HMOs.”