NU Online News Service, Jan. 29, 11:07 a.m. – President Bush took time in his State of the Union speech Tuesday to zing health maintenance organizations.
"Instead of bureaucrats and trial lawyers and HMOs," the president declared, "we must put doctors and nurses and patients back in charge of American medicine."
But the president also expressed support for the concept of private health insurance. "We must work toward a system in which all Americans have a good insurance policy [and] choose their own doctors," the president said.
Although many people are unable to afford medical care and others lack any medical coverage, "these problems will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care," the president insisted.