[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REAL MANAGED CARE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, yesterday the Republican Health Task 
Force unveiled a set of principles that fall far short of real patient 
protections for Americans in HMOs.
  More sinister was the Republicans' stated intention to combine 
changes in managed care with limits on medical malpractice liability 
and other highly controversial add-ons which will immediately kill any 
possibility for even limited patient protections to pass Congress this 
year.
  Earlier this week, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske) and the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) introduced a discharge petition 
to bypass the Republican leadership's opposition to real managed care 
reform and bring the Patients' Bill of Rights to the floor for a vote.
  The Patients' Bill of Rights would put control of medical decisions 
back where they belong, in the hands of doctors and their patients, not 
with the insurance industry bureaucrats.
  Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to sign the Ganske-Dingell 
discharge petition so we can have a vote on real managed care reform 
this year.

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