[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E53]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE BREAST CANCER PATIENT PROTECTION ACT OF 1997

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                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 7, 1997

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to join my colleagues 
Representatives DeLauro and Roukema of New Jersey, in introducing the 
Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 1997. This legislation seeks to 
ensure that women and doctors--not insurance company bureaucrats--will 
decide how long a woman who has a mastectomy should remain in the 
hospital.
  For any woman, learning that she has breast cancer is one of her most 
frightening experiences. Learning that she must have a mastectomy, a 
surgical procedure that will change her body and her life, can be 
devastating.
  To have an insurance company dare to say to this woman, who is facing 
one of life's great crises, that she must leave the hospital whether 
she is healed or not, is the ultimate insult. It is something that we 
should not tolerate, and that we must not allow.
  Every medical specialty organization in this country challenges the 
right of insurance companies to interfere in the decision of what 
treatment is medically necessary or appropriate for a patient. Whether 
that patient is a young woman giving birth to a baby, or a woman having 
surgery to treat breast cancer, the insurer has no right to be in the 
middle, between the patient and the doctor.
  Respresentative DeLauro and I, along with many other Members, placed 
this issue on the table at the end of last session because we wanted 
every Member of this body to think about this matter before the 
convening of this new Congress. We have spent the past several months 
researching the best, most effective way to accomplish the goals we 
laid out last year. We believe this legislation does that. We have made 
sure that we do not preempt responsible State legislation and we have 
defined health plans to be consistent with the Kassebaum-Kennedy health 
insurance reform bill and with the MOMS bill I introduced last session, 
which provides for 48-hour maternity stays.
  This legislation goes where many angels have feared to tread, into 
the hallowed halls of well-heeled industry that is trying to make cost, 
rather than care, the driving principle of our health care system. This 
legislation just says ``no.'' It says to anyone who is not the patient 
or the patient's doctor: ``No, you may not dictate when a patient must 
leave the hospital.''
  The devastation of breast cancer is too great. The difficulties, both 
physical and psychological, associated with mastectomy are too complex. 
This legislation seeks to ensure that insurance snafus and mindless 
refusals do not make these already difficult situations impossible.

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