[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 8404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
       HEALTH CARE MYTH: HEALTH REFORM WILL LIMIT PATIENT CHOICE

  (Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Another health care myth--if we reform our 
health care system, patients will lose choice. Again, this is simply 
not true. First, it begs the question: What choice do patients have 
today?
  In America, we have choice, but too often it lies not with the doctor 
or patient, but with the insurance company. Patients are denied 
physician-prescribed treatment, doctors are denied reimbursement for 
necessary care, and increasingly restrictive networks of coverage mean 
restrictive choice for patients.
  A survey of the leading proposals for reform shows that no one is 
talking about limiting patient choice. In fact, a publicly sponsored 
plan, with a potential network of millions of Americans, would likely 
have one of the most robust networks of providers in the system, since 
doctors and hospitals would want and need to have access to this large 
pool of patients.
  A public plan itself increases patient choice by allowing families to 
decide whether they want to continue with their private insurance plan 
or move to a publicly sponsored plan that might provide better coverage 
due to lower administrative and profit costs.
  Health care reform limiting patient choice? It's just another myth 
about our health care system.

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