[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 91 (Thursday, June 24, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7552-S7553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I see the Senator from California back on 
the floor prepared to offer her amendment on the pending legislation. 
It is an extremely important amendment.
  I noted that she was here yesterday morning prepared to offer the 
amendment, and then in the midmorning, and then at noontime, and then 
in the early afternoon, midafternoon, and late afternoon.
  I am very glad we are going to have a brief period of morning 
business. But, as one Senator, I hope this is really the last time we 
are going to have a period of morning business and that we can get on 
to the business and the substance of this legislation.
  We went through all day yesterday with continuations of morning 
business, and we had some 16 Members--those who are cosponsors of the 
Patients' Bill of Rights--who came to the floor prepared to speak on 
the Patients' Bill of Rights, different features of it. Many of them--I 
think eight of them--are actually prepared to offer amendments but were 
unable to do so because we were in continued morning business. I see 
that the Senator from California is prepared to move ahead and move 
this whole process forward.
  I think the American people want us to move ahead on this. I think it 
is enormously timely that we do, and particularly in the way the 
Senator from California intends to address the Senate. I know she will 
speak for herself in a few moments.
  We can see what happened in the last few hours among the doctors in 
this Nation. The American Medical Association is voting to try to come 
together in a way to advance, one, the quality of health care for the 
American consumer; and, two, to be able to deal with these economic 
pressures they are under from the HMOs, in order to give assurance to 
their patients that they are going to be able to receive the best in 
terms of health care.
  It just underlines, once again, the importance of Senator Feinstein's 
amendment in terms of what is going to be defined as medically 
necessary. That is at the heart of this whole issue on the Patients' 
Bill of Rights. I think we ought to be about the debate on that during 
the course of the day.
  This is a very fundamental, basic difference. I have read carefully--
and it didn't take a great deal of time--the comments of those who 
spoke yesterday in favor of what I call the ``patients' bill of 
wrongs'' being submitted by the other side, which was passed out of our 
Human Resource Committee. There was no real focus and attention on this 
fundamental and basic issue. We ought to be about it; we ought to 
debate it and vote on it and move ahead on other pieces of legislation.
  I find that it appears with the proposal--I see the Senator on her 
feet at the present time--I listened with great interest to the 
proposal made by the Republican leadership suggesting how we proceed 
next week on the Patients' Bill of Rights.
  The way I looked at their proposal that was going to be offered by 
the majority leader, it would effectively permit only one Democratic 
amendment per day and we would have only 4 days, because under the 
proposal they would have a first-degree amendment, a Republican 
amendment, and then you could have a second-degree Democratic amendment 
and a second-degree Republican. That would take 6 hours. Then you would 
have a first-degree Democrat amendment, a second-degree Republican 
amendment, a second-degree Democrat amendment. That is 6 more hours. 
That is 12 hours with one amendment.
  That is not the Senate, Mr. President. I don't believe that offer 
deserves to be accepted. We were tied up in morning business for a full 
day because they did not want to vote on a single proposition of 
whether the insurance company accountants or the medical profession 
ought to make the medical decisions. That is a very basic and 
fundamental one. This body ought to make a judgment and decision on 
that issue.
  I see the Senator from California on her feet now, and I hope that 
after she makes a presentation on this, we will be able to just have 
the opportunity to commend our colleagues to her position. I have 
reviewed both her statement and her amendment; it is an excellent one. 
With the acceptance of her amendment, it will mean that every insurance 
policy in this country, virtually, will establish a higher standard of 
treatment for the American patients, for every child, for every member 
of a family, and that will be the basic standard that will be used.

[[Page S7553]]

  I don't believe that the American families ought to have any less 
than the best. The Senator from California has an amendment to address 
that issue. We should listen carefully to it, and then we should move 
to let the Senate make a judgment on this decision. I look forward to 
the discussion and debate, and hopefully we can have some resolution of 
it.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hutchinson). The Senator from California 
is recognized.

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