[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 83 (Monday, June 14, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4217-H4218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ENCOURAGING FAIR AND OPEN DEBATE ON PATIENT PROTECTION LITIGATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, another week has gone by, and this House of 
Representatives has done nothing again to address the abuses in the HMO 
industry. I have been coming to the well of this House for 4 years to 
encourage the leadership of Congress to allow a fair and open debate on 
patient protection legislation.
  Every time, I point out the HMO abuses, like the HMO abuse that cost 
this woman her life, or the HMO decision that cost this little boy both 
his hands and both his feet, like the HMO decisions that a child born 
with a birth defect like this, complete cleft lip and palate is a 
cosmetic defect, and they will not cover the cost of repair.
  Every week I talk about patients like this, this woman who fell off a 
40-foot cliff, and her HMO refused to pay for her hospitalization even 
though she had a broken skull, broken arm, broken pelvis, because she 
had not phoned ahead for prior authorization.

[[Page H4218]]

  Mr. Speaker, these are not just isolated anecdotes. The victims of 
managed care are our friends, our neighbors, our fellow workers, our 
own family members. That is why audiences cheered when Helen Hunt 
described with blistering language her HMO's abominable treatment of 
her asthmatic son in the movie ``As Good As It Gets.''

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. Speaker, that is also why the polls show that 85 percent of the 
public think that Congress should do something to stop HMO abuses like 
the ones that I have just shared.
  So, Mr. Speaker, what is happening on Capitol Hill? Well, for weeks 
the Committee on Commerce has had a draft of patient protection 
legislation that the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) and I provided the chairman, and 
we still have no firm commitment on a date for subcommittee action, 
much less full committee action. There are rumors on Capitol Hill that 
because the majority of the committee probably would vote for a strong 
bill, the rumors are that our committee may not even get a chance to 
vote on the issue, just like a repeat of last year.
  This week the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations will begin 
voting on what can only charitably be called a series of protections 
for the HMOs, not for patients.
  I urge my colleagues to look at the fine print of those many bills. 
Most of those ``limited'' bills that are going to be taken up in the 
Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations are taken from language of 
last year's bill which passed the House that was crafted in the middle 
of the night by the industry and that I would charitably describe as 
the HMO Protection Act of 1998.
  So why is the Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce not using a comprehensive bill as a markup vehicle? Why are 
they not using the bill offered by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Norwood)? After all, he is a Republican member of that committee. Why 
are they not using my bill, the Managed Care Reform Act of 1999, which 
has the endorsement of many consumer groups like the American Cancer 
Society and professional groups like the American Academy of Family 
Physicians and the American College of Surgeons?
  Well, the answer is clear. Last year the House rules were used to 
limit debate on this important issue, and the HMO industry is pulling 
strings again. I only hope that enough of my fellow Republicans on the 
House Committee on Education and the Workforce will say enough is 
enough. Let us do this right. And if they do not, let us hope that 
their constituents will flood their offices with pleas that they sign 
the committee petition that would make a real, comprehensive reform 
bill the vehicle for the markup.
  Most of us are in Congress to try to make a difference. We feel that 
public service is important. As a Republican, I do not want bigger 
government, but I do want better government. And there are many big 
problems confronting us like securing the future of Medicare and Social 
Security and providing for our Nation's defense, but there are many 
problems that are less nationally portentous, but equally grave for 
individuals that many of us as Republicans want to help solve.
  I am proud that I have contributed to helping pass legislation in the 
past few years to help make food safer, to help make water cleaner, to 
provide more life-saving drugs. And I am proud to come from a Midwest 
Republican tradition of common-sense government. It was Midwest 
Republicans like Bob LaFollette who called for minimum safety and 
health standards that work. It was Republican populists who called for 
the prohibition of child labor and for 1 day's rest in 7 for all wage-
earners.
  Republicans took up the causes of the muckrakers and helped pass the 
first food safety laws. It was the Bull Moosers who called for a system 
of social insurance for those who were injured on the job. It was 
Midwest Republicans who encouraged rural education and agricultural 
extension.
  An Iowan, Carrie Chapman Catt, a Mason City, Iowa, high school 
principal, organized the National Women's Suffrage Association in 1905. 
Now, I do not know if Carrie Chapman Catt was a Republican or Democrat, 
but I do know that Midwest Republicans called for suffrage of women in 
1913.
  Mr. Speaker, it was Republican Teddy Roosevelt that broke up the 
trusts and stood up for the little guy, stood up for farmers who had 
battled the railroad trusts and the railroad robber barons.
  I call on my Republican colleagues to remember our compassionate 
conservative heritage. I call on my Republican colleagues to tell our 
leadership and committee chairmen that we are not in the pockets of the 
HMOs. Teddy Roosevelt knew that the little guy could not stand up alone 
to the railroad barons without help from the government. The little guy 
today cannot stand up to an HMO with the way the deck is stacked 
against him.
  So what does the HMO industry now want? They want the Federal 
Government to spend $60 billion a year for tax subsidies for their 
industry; but, of course, with no strings attached, nobody telling them 
how to run their business, nobody telling them to stop abusing 
patients. They do not want any State insurance oversight, and they do 
not want any Federal requirements either. ``Just give us the money.''
  These are the same people, Mr. Speaker, who are spending millions of 
dollars lobbying here in Washington against the Patients' Bill of 
Rights. Last year, Mr. Speaker, the industry spent more than $100,000 
per Congressman lobbying against patient protection legislation.
  It is time for my Republican colleagues to remember our Teddy 
Roosevelt and our Bob LaFollette tradition and back a bill that would 
give the little guy some say over his medical care.
  In 1993, the HMO industry told us we would lose our choice in health 
care and we would not get the coverage we needed if the Clinton health 
plan passed and became law, and it was true. Unfortunately, those same 
insurance companies went ahead and did the same thing they opposed in 
the Clinton health plan in order to increase their profits.
  However, just as many of us were against a government bureaucrat 
running roughshod over patients, we should be equally outraged over an 
insurance bureaucrat doing exactly the same. $60 billion a year of 
taxpayer money without real patient protection reform like my Managed 
Care Reform Act of 1999 would be to reward the HMOs for their patient 
abuses.
  Do not get me wrong. I strongly support increasing tax deductibility 
for health care, I just think that the health care companies should not 
get something for nothing. It would make Teddy Roosevelt and Bob 
LaFollette roll over in their graves.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle: Join 
me, fight the big money HMO special interests. Let us show our 
constituents that we cannot be bought or intimidated by special 
interests any more than Teddy Roosevelt could be. Let us pass strong 
patient protection legislation for all Americans this summer.

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