[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 15619]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM GIVES THE PATIENT THE POWER

  (Mr. CASSIDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Speaker, critical to health care reform is who has 
the power. Currently, the payer has the power. Ask a Medicaid recipient 
if she has the power or the government agency which pays. Ask a patient 
denied a procedure if he has the power or the insurance company which 
pays.
  Reform must fix what's broken. What's broken is who has the power. 
Real reform gives the patient the power.
  Government already controls 50 percent of health care spending. By 
controlling dollars, bureaucrats control care.
  The President's plan doubles down on government control. It doubles 
down what is broken. It invests in government, not in patients. How can 
we trust bureaucracies that broke health care to fix health care? Trust 
government that always overpromised and underfunded?
  Until reform transfers power from payer to patient, there is no 
reform. Give the power to the patient.

                          ____________________