GEPHARDT STATEMENT ON THE GOP JUNKYARD

WASHINGTON - 08.02.01 | "We're here today in the GOP Junkyard, a place where good ideas come to rot and decompose. Every time I am home in St. Louis people ask me, 'Where is the prescription drug plan? You all campaigned on it, you all said you were going to bring it up?' They ask where are the new teachers? You all said you were going to help us reduce our class sizes, where are the teachers?

"Today, we are showing you the junkyard for American priorities - the GOP Junkyard. President Bush and the Republican leadership say they are for the same things we are - a prescription drug bill, a better education system, and a Patients' Bill of Rights. But when they try to shine up our issues and drive them out off the junkyard lot by putting tape on gaping holes in the tires, they just won't drive. But they do it again and again. Over and over saying they are for programs to help people but then using tricks, illusion, legislative fakery to bury them.

"Americans have asked us for a Patients' Bill of Rights. People all over the country who have been victims of medical problems because their HMO bureaucrats make decisions for them and not their doctors, have told us they need our help. For the last five years, Democrats have been working across the aisle in a bipartisan fashion to try to pass the real Patients' Bill of Rights. But today, we will vote on a bill that is just another example of a good idea that will be parked in the GOP junkyard. They took an idea, tried to shine it up, make it look like a Patients' Bill of Rights, and what do you know - another junk car that just won't drive.

"If this bill passes, the HMO lobbyists will get to drive off in shiny new Lexuses while the rest of the American people will get a muffler.

"This bill is better for the HMOs than it is for patients. And don't take it from me, take it from the sponsors of real HMO reform, Dr. Ganske and Sen. John McCain.

"This bill contains the same problems and flaws as it has always had. The rights in this bill are not meaningful; they are not enforceable; they are not real. They are illusion and delusion all rolled into one, and if it passes, it will be cause for celebration for every HMO in America. The HMOs will be dancing in the aisles, but the American people will be denied yet again this historic opportunity to get rights that have meaning and value for them. There is a lot of talk from the administration about bipartisanship. But as the New York Times editorial said today, 'real bipartisanship takes more than two men from the same party in a room.' This is unacceptable. We must do better."

t r u t h o u t - http://www.truthout.com

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), August 06, 2001

Answers

Sarcasm on. Thanks Cherri, that was just chock full of interesting and completely non-political facts. Sarcasm off.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), August 06, 2001.

The wit and wisdom of Dick Gephardt. LOL.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), August 06, 2001.

The Dems are still pissed about the failure of Hillary's socialized medicine debacle.

-- Remember (the@ld.forum.com), August 06, 2001.

Real News: CA Supreme Court rules gunmakers not liable for crimes committed with guns.

(as opposed to the usual non-news that Cherri posts)

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), August 06, 2001.

DON'T POST TO THIS STUPID BITCH EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

DON'T ENOURAGE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHE SPREADS MISINFORMATION WHERE EVER SHE GOES OR SPEAKS!!!

THAT'S WHY SHE SPENDS MOST OF HER TIME ON THE INTERNET WHERE PEOPLE CAN'T ACUTALLY SPIT ON HER!!!!!!!!!!

-- (Ok @ I'll calm .down now), August 06, 2001.

Thanks for posting this Cheri. I respect Gephardt and his opinion. This man knows what he is talking about with HMO's.

I work with dental HMO's everyday. I can only imagine that medical HMO's are much worse considering that they deal with life and death.

We recently closed our office to new members of a well known HMO. The reasons are varied and everyone here has probably heard of the way these HMO's affect the doctors and staff.

Last week the regional manager paid me a visit to discuss an 'updated treatment plan' they are offering. I assumed this meant better care for the patient. To make a long story short, what was offered were 'new' rules for copayment collections.

Did you know that what you pay for a porcelain fused to metal crown on a posterior tooth can now be increased? The way it is done is that you subtract the cost of a full cast metal crown from the cost of a porcelain fused to metal crown and ADD that difference to the copayment for the porcelain crown? The extra cost to the patient is usually in the area of $200.00.

So, HMO's, in order to keep doctors in their plans offer 'better treatment plans'. THEY don't pay the doctor extra, they allow the doctor to charge YOU more.

Even the language they use, IMO, shows how out of touch they are with the CARE of the patient. A treatment plan is a plan of TREATMENT for the patient. What they offered was an updated PAYMENT plan and they couldn't even be honest about it.

The rights in this bill are not meaningful; they are not enforceable; they are not real. They are illusion and delusion all rolled into one, and if it passes, it will be cause for celebration for every HMO in America. The HMOs will be dancing in the aisles, but the American people will be denied yet again this historic opportunity to get rights that have meaning and value for them.

Like I said, Gephardt knows what he is talking about.

-- Debra (Thisis@it.com), August 07, 2001.