[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 21, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 21, 1994]



    GOOD NEWS--MORE HEALTH BENEFITS ALLOWED BY OFFICE OF PERSONNEL 
                               MANAGEMENT

  (Mrs. SCHROEDER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, this is an exciting occasion, and I 
thank all the Members of this body who joined me in my bill asking that 
the Federal employees health benefits include bone marrow transplants 
for people with breast cancer or ovarian cancer. I can tell the Members 
that we did not have to pass the bill. The very good news is that we 
made such a good case that you can tell by this morning's newspaper 
that the Office of Personnel Management has now announced that benefits 
will be increased to cover those items.
  This is going to save many, many lives, and it is going to save an 
awful lot of dollars. I thank them for having an open mind and not 
forcing us to pass legislation. That is how things should be done here.
  But I thank all the Members who helped us make the case, too. I think 
for everybody in America this is good news because the Federal 
employees health benefits package is the model for many others, and we 
hope that we will soon see CHAMPUS and many States joining and 
including these things in the benefits package that goes out to people, 
because we know it is now beyond the experimentation level and really 
does work.

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