[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 26 (Thursday, March 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MORE ON MANAGED CARE

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask those of you this 
morning how many of you felt pain, the pain of having a youngster break 
his leg, and your managed care insurance indicated that it does not 
meet the deductible; or the pain of having an older parent whose 
treatment is not able to be gotten in the jurisdiction in which you 
live, and you have to transport them across State lines, the United 
States of America, and being denied by your HMO that service for that 
elderly parent that you so care and love for.
  I tell you it is interesting that in a House that should believe in 
the Bill of Rights, the Republican leadership does not want us to pass 
the Patient Bill of Rights, giving rights to those of you who pay every 
day for your health insurance, who time after time after time get 
denied by some bureaucrat when your doctor says you need the care.
  Republicans, they say, wait a while, we will do it in increments, one 
by one by one. While you are staying there, not surviving, not getting 
the care you need and having the bureaucrat tell you what kind of 
hospitalization you need, what kinds of surgery you need, what kind of 
prescriptions you need.
  It is time to pass the Patient Bill of Rights. I do not know what is 
wrong with the Republican leadership, but I would say to them that this 
body should support the Patient Bill of Rights.

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