SPRINGFIELD -- If you're like most workers and get healthcare through your employer, your options are most likely limited to the doctors assigned to your network.

In Springfield, that choice usually boils down to the two big providers, Cox or St. John's.  You get the doctors in one network, or the other. But now some patients advocates are asking why they don't have the right to choose.

Now, a citizens group that's calling for more choices, is trying to change that.

Holly Cuoco is helping lead the charge.  When she was battling cancer, she decided to venture outside her provider network to increase her chances for a cure.

"I was in a wheelchair, lost 40 pounds, couldn't speak, had radiation on my throat," Cuoco said.

Craig Luna is an insurance agent who doesn't understand why his kids keep being forced to find a new doctor when they get a new job.

"I think the patient should have the right to choose who in the world they want to see," said Luna.

But right now, Missouri law only allows consumers to go outside their provider network at a higher cost.

That's why the group, Missourians for Choice in Health Care are supporting "Any Willing Provider" legislation, also known as House Bill 303.  The legislation would prohibit insurers from discriminating against any doctor willing to provide his or her services.  It basically would open up the system and eliminate the networks.

"With this law, if it passes, you would not have to switch doctors," said Cuoco.

"It ought to be my choice, I'm the consumer," Luna said.

"I think that there's a very solid argument to be made that it would actually decrease quality," responded Mike Peters of St. John's Hospital.

Hospitals oppose "Any Willing Provider."

While almost half of the country has the health care choice law in place, Peters said that some states have seen their health care costs rise as a result.  He said that's because when the pool of patients deceases in a network, the premium price is likely to rise.

"If you negotiate that price but then suddenly those 10,000 become 5,000, in an any willing provider situation where you have no guarantee you're going to see a regular flow of patients, your costs go up," Peters said.

"I don't believe it.  How can it?  The costs are already outrageous," Luna said, in return.

But Luna, and Cuoco don't buy it.  They said in an open competitive market, the best doctors will thrive.

"The good doctors everybody knows, and the patients, they all talk, they all know," said Cuoco.

This legislation overwhelmingly passed the House last year, but too late to make it to the Senate. This year, it hasn't even been assigned to a committee. Rep. Rob Schaaf, a proponent of the legislation, said at a meeting Thursday that House Speaker Ron Richard opposes it because he's "good friends with one of the guys who runs the hospital in Joplin."