Charlie Norwood Quotations

What we're really trying to do is level out the health care system. It has gotten so one-sided as more and more people have been put into managed care; in fact, about 70 percent of the patients in the country.

The congresspersons who are co-sponsoring the bill are being beat up in their districts with negative advertising. We need to go to them and say we understand; we're here to help and on your side.

Average Americans are going to win this, not me. And not just your organization, not just the providers of health care, but the American people are going to cause this to happen. But they have to keep sending those cards and letters.

There is no question that managed care is managed cost, and the idea is that you can save a lot of money and make health care costs less if you ration it.

We represent people, and any good congressperson wants to know how their people at home feel about issues. I can tell you for sure in our office that is taken into account, and that is true for any congresspersons I know.

none of this is any good unless we can get a signature, and we're moving, I think, in the right direction.

If at the end of May we don't, we'll reform, regroup, decide how we're going to go about it, but if the task force can't come up with the bill, I'm going to push mine, and go ahead and make the changes in it that we've been working on now for a year or two and just go for it.

When they hear from you, it counts. That's how we're going to win.

Our governor took care of it...that's who I want to take care of it,

People have tremendous power, more than the average person understands, and certainly more than even I understood before I came to Congress. When any of my constituents writes me a letter, I promise you, we're listening.

We wanted to make sure people can choose their own doctor, ... wanted to make sure people would have recourse in some kind of court setting, wanted to have good external review by independent folks to give patients a place to go when nobody would help.

The president has committed to sign our bill with this amendment, ... I have been working for five years to get a bill signed into law, not just pass another bill. Like it or not, we have to work with this president.

We're not trying to take everything in the state, but we would like the 12th back,

We have five chairmen on our bill from the Republican conference, and that's very important. We're where we been trying to get to for three years, and that is to say to the leadership: "Listen, let's discuss this and let's come out with a bill this year that protects patients in reference to managed care." That's right where we are.

Speaker Newt Gingrich has appointed a task force, which I'm on, and over the next couple months the task force is going to try to come up with legislation that does what we're all trying to do. I feel pretty good about the members that are on the task force.

You've had some terrific print information that gets everybody's attention in this town.

It's important right now to continue to have your patients contact their senators and their congresspeople to say we have a problem. We want you to help solve it, we want you to be involved.

They've lost their ability to choose their health care professionals, and the heart of that is they're being denied care.

These talks are not for show, ... We hope to work out a compromise, and the president is committed to keeping the lines of communication open with Norwood throughout.

The nation can't afford that kind of inefficiency, red tape and inflated costs when we have an entire region to rebuild, largely at taxpayer expense,

I'm offering to sign a bill and not veto it.

These figures show an immediate need to redouble our efforts to increase our voluntary compliance programs that have proven so effective in reducing workplace injuries and death where they have been implemented.