[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4636-S4637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          NEWBORNS' AND MOTHERS' HEALTH PROTECTION ACT OF 1996

  Mr. BRADLEY. Mr. President, in 10 days it will be Mother's Day. This 
means something precious to mothers, grandmothers, and expectant 
mothers in this country. I, along with many others, also think it means 
something special to the Senate. It is our opportunity to take up and 
pass the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996.
  I have several letters with me today. These were addressed to the 
majority leader and the minority leader of the Senate. Each letter 
respectfully requests that a date for Senate floor action and a vote on 
the newborns bill be scheduled as soon as possible. This is what we can 
do for mothers and their families this Mother's Day.
  Let me remind us all of the history of the newborns bill. Last year, 
many of us began to hear disturbing stories about mothers and babies 
being forced to leave the hospital too soon after childbirth.
  While we can all agree that sometimes it makes good medical sense for 
mothers and babies to go home quickly, we have to recognize that, 
tragically, many times it is not good sense. We have been moved and 
saddened to learn of the deaths of babies and of serious and sometimes 
lifelong threats to their health and normal development that come from 
leaving the hospital too soon after childbirth.
  Many of us began to hear that the decision about whether or not a 
mother and her baby should leave the hospital was being made by the 
wrong people. We began to hear that those who should make this 
decision, the doctor or the health care practitioner attending the 
mother and baby, were in fact not making that decision. Instead, the 
decision forcing a woman to leave the hospital in less than 24 hours 
after childbirth was being made by a clerk at an insurance company 
shaving costs and shortening lives.
  I think many of us began to realize that this was the moment in a 
situation just like this when Government should step in to try to 
provide protection to mothers and babies. We all know the health care 
environment has changed, and changed with startling speed, over the 
last couple of years. Such a massive, fast change, even when positive, 
always creates instability and temporary imbalances. On occasion, it 
creates a serious problem. This is a serious problem--forcing women out 
of hospitals after giving childbirth in less than 24 hours.
  With this background, Senator Kassebaum and I introduced the 
Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act, S. 969, about a year 
ago--last June. This is a bill that respects the authority of doctors 
and other health care practitioners, in consultation with mothers, to 
make health care decisions about the length of time their patient 
should stay in the hospital following childbirth. This is a bill that 
respects the flexibility that health plans need to manage care 
efficiently in our rapidly changing health care environment.

  Mr. President, the newborns act creates what my colleague and 
cosponsor on this bill, Doctor and Senator Frist has called a safe 
haven of time--a safe haven of time for doctors, mothers, and babies, 
48 hours minimum for normal childbirth, 96 hours minimum for Cesarean 
sections. Under this bill, doctors, nurse practitioners, nurse 
midwives, and nurses will all be free to do their job. Mothers will be 
relieved of the fear that they may be sent home too early before their 
babies are stable and they are prepared physically and emotionally. 
Newborns will be watched

[[Page S4637]]

and tested and assisted with their job of adapting to this world.
  When it is appropriate for mothers and newborns to go home before the 
end of a 48-hour period or a 96-hour safe haven, they will go home--if 
it is appropriate, they will go home. Followup care will be required 
and studied in greater depth because of the fine amendment that Senator 
DeWine of Ohio was able to add.
  Please understand that this bill does not require that all mothers 
stay in the hospital for a specified length of time any more than it 
requires all mothers to give birth in hospitals. A woman, in 
consultation with her doctor, may decide to leave the hospital before 
48 hours, but in no event can an insurance company require that she 
leave in less than 48 hours.
  Mr. President, April 17, 1996, is an important day for the Senate. 
The Labor and Human Resources Committee held a markup on the newborns 
bill and, after careful consideration, the committee members voted 
overwhelmingly to send the bill to the full Senate.
  What I would like to do is return to the letters that are en route to 
the distinguished Senators from Kansas and South Dakota. One letter 
makes a bit of history. Six different professional medical groups have 
all signed the same letter asking for full Senate action in behalf of 
mothers and newborns. They are the American Medical Association, the 
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, the American Nurses Association, the Association 
of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, all joined by 
the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. All have joined together 
to say:

       As organizations representing health care professionals and 
     advocates committed to quality maternity care, we urge you to 
     schedule for consideration by the full Senate S. 969. We ask 
     you to lend your leadership to guarantee that women and their 
     newborns receive adequate insurance coverage at one of the 
     most important times in their lives.

  Mr. President, this is remarkable unity and should inspire us in the 
Senate to do the same and take action.
  A second letter comes from more than 30 cosponsors and supporters of 
the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act. This letter says many 
of the same things:

       Let us move on this bill. Newborns and their mothers need 
     it. It is very important. We hope--

  The letter goes on to say--

     we will be able to inform hundreds of thousands of interested 
     mothers by Mother's Day when this vote will occur.

  Several of our women colleagues in the Senate--in fact, all of them--
have agreed to sign a third letter. Let me quote a few words from it. 
It simply says: ``What better Mother's Day gift can we give to new 
mothers than passing this bill?''
  A fourth letter comes from the Center for Patient Advocacy, a 
nonpartisan organization devoted to quality of care for patients. They 
write and say much the same thing. They say pass the newborn bill. Pass 
it so that by Mother's Day we can assure mothers that they will be 
taken care of.
  Finally, I want to mention what I believe are the most important 
letters and pieces of correspondence of all. Those are from the more 
than 83,000--83,000 men and women, doctors and nurses, grandparents and 
families who have written my office alone to support this bill--83,000.
  The Baumans in my State of New Jersey, the Drumms of Philadelphia, 
the Joneses of New York, the Avandoglios of Tennessee, are just a few 
of the families who have generously shared their personal experience 
and support for this bill.
  The Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act has earned 
unprecedented, unified, professional support from doctors and prompted 
many thousands of Americans to write us in support of this bill. The 
bill has been carefully developed with input from all interested 
parties on both sides of the aisle and throughout the community. It has 
passed the wise review of the Labor Committee and passed with flying 
colors.
  Many in the Senate have indicated their support. I hope we will honor 
the occasion of Mother's Day and the voice of so many Americans by 
announcing as soon as possible that the Senate will vote on this bill 
and, in passing this bill, will say to mothers that now we understand 
that giving birth deserves the respect that the insurance industry has 
failed to give it in requiring women to leave hospitals in less than 24 
hours.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
Delaware.

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