[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 26, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HEALTH INSURANCE PATIENT-OWNERSHIP PLAN

  (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. Speaker, I am a third-generation physician. Both my father and 
grandfather were doctors, and I practiced medicine for over 20 years 
before coming to Congress. I can tell my colleagues that without a 
doubt, the doctor-patient relationship is far from what it used to be, 
or ought to be.
  Today, our health care system is big business. The doctor-patient 
relationship is often obstructed by insurance companies, the 
government, and employers. The result is a system that prevents people 
from having control and ownership of critical health care decisions in 
their own lives.
  Today, employers or the government most often determine what health 
insurance coverage a person receives, they dictate what the copays and 
the deductibles are, and they hold the contract with the insurance 
company.
  I believe that the person most affected by health care decisions 
should be the one who has the most control over those decisions, and 
that is the patient.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time we started thinking about health care in a 
new way. We should put health care choices in the patient's hands, not 
the employer's, not the insurance company's, and certainly not the 
government's. H. Res. 215, the Health Insurance Patient-Ownership Plan, 
is a good way to begin, and I ask my colleagues for their support on 
this new, exciting, and positive initiative.




                          ____________________