[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10962]
[From the U.S. 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. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, as a third-generation physician, I 
have seen our health care system drive patients and doctors further and 
further apart. The problem with our current system is that patients are 
prevented from having immediate control and ownership over critical 
health care decisions.
  Right now, employers or the government determine which health 
benefits are included in an insurance policy, and it may not be what 
the patient needs or wants. When patients voice their concerns, 
insurance companies respond with a deaf ear because the patient cannot 
change the policy. They are excluded from that decision.
  Nearly nine out of ten companies with fewer than 200 employees offer 
only one health plan. What this means is that the person most affected 
by the health care, the patient, has little or no input into the type 
of coverage they have. Patients should be able to control their health 
care.
  Mr. Speaker, we should think about health care in a way that gives 
patients the power to select who takes care of them and where, that 
puts health care choices back in the hands of patients.
  Defined contribution plans do this, and they are the hallmark of H. 
Res. 215, the Health Insurance Patient Ownership Plan. I ask my 
colleagues for their support on this new initiative.

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