[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 91 (Thursday, June 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H4832-H4833]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HOUSE SHOULD ALLOW DEBATE AND VOTE ON DEMOCRATS' PATIENTS' BILL OF 
                                 RIGHTS

  (Mr. ROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I joined my Democratic colleagues 
in signing a discharge petition to force the Republican leadership here 
in the House to bring the Democrats' Patients' Bill of Rights up for 
debate and a vote. The Republican leadership refuses to permit debate 
and a vote on the Democrats' Patients' Bill of Rights.
  The Democrats' Patients' Bill of Rights is based on a revolutionary 
idea that managed care should be more

[[Page H4833]]

 about managing the health of our loved ones than managing the profits 
of the HMOs.
  We need to ensure that treatment decisions are made by a patient's 
doctors, not by an HMO accounting clerk; that patients can enforce 
their rights by taking HMOs to court if the HMO wrongfully denies 
surgery, specialists, hospitalization or other medically necessary care 
that causes the death or injury to the patients.
  Moderates on both sides of the aisle have endorsed the Democrats' 
Patients' Bill of Rights, but the Republican leadership here in the 
House of Representatives refuses to allow us to debate and vote on it.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to persuade your Republican 
leadership here in the House to allow debate and a vote on the 
Democrats' Patients' Bill of Rights.

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