[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE PATIENT'S PROTECTION ACT WILL HOLD HMO'S ACCOUNTABLE FOR PATIENTS' 
                         HEALTH CARE DECISIONS

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, last week I met with a constituent of mine, 
Barbara Salinger, from New Haven, Connecticut. Barbara's husband passed 
away from colon cancer shortly after their HMO forced him out of the 
hospital, only days after his surgery. Barbara fought to get him 
readmitted when he came down with a fever and started vomiting the next 
day, but he died shortly thereafter.
  Under the Democratic Patient's Protection Act, HMOs will be held 
accountable when they deny patients like Mr. Salinger the care that 
they need. Meanwhile, Republicans have created a sham proposal that has 
no enforcement mechanism. The GOP bill protects the health insurance 
companies, not the health of average Americans.
  There is only one bill that holds the managed care plans responsible 
for denying care with real, reliable, and enforceable remedies. The 
Republican leadership should abandon their sham proposal and respond to 
what the American people are very concerned about. They want to be able 
to have good health care coverage, to not be denied, to make sure that 
their medical decisions are being made by themselves and by their 
doctors, not by insurance company bureaucrats.

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