[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5641-H5642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MANAGED CARE REFORM

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, Republican leaders in both Chambers are now 
pushing managed care reform plans that will not provide enforcement of 
patient protections because they deny

[[Page H5642]]

patients the right to sue their HMO when their health suffers because 
they are denied the care that they need. Federal judges around the 
country are increasingly frustrated by the current law which prohibits 
patients from holding their HMOs accountable.
  Take the case, for example, in Denver, where Judge John C. Porfillo 
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit noted that 
current law gives the courts no choice in such cases. Judge Porfillo 
told the New York Times he was deeply moved by the tragic circumstances 
of a woman who died of leukemia after her HMO denied her care.
  The right to sue, Mr. Speaker, is the enforcement mechanism for all 
the patient protections that we are advocating as Democrats. President 
Clinton summed it up best when he said a right without a remedy is not 
a right. The Democrats' Patients' Bill of Rights would hold HMOs 
accountable and give patients the right to sue when they are denied the 
care that they need. The Republican leadership should abandon its 
charade and stop pushing its sham proposal and get behind the Patients' 
Bill of Rights.

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