[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 6, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would urge my colleagues today and 
tomorrow to vote only for the Norwood-Dingell managed care reform, the 
Patients' Bill of Rights.
  Every effort is being made with the rule that we will adopt today in 
the House to try to mess up the Patients' Bill of Rights and make sure 
that it is ultimately defeated and does not go on to the Senate.
  The Patients' Bill of Rights, the Norwood-Dingell bill, would change 
the way medical care is provided by guaranteeing that the doctor and 
the patients make the decisions about what kind of care they get rather 
than the insurance company and it would provide for enforcement through 
an external independent review process if their medical care has been 
denied and ultimately to the federal courts.
  The phony access bill that the Republican leadership will put up on 
the floor today does nothing for the uninsured. It does not help the 
uninsured at all. All it does is to make it more difficult to pass the 
Norwood-Dingell Patients' Bill of Rights.
  The substitutes that are going to be proposed tomorrow as 
alternatives to the Norwood-Dingell bill, all they do is basically 
water down their ability to get adequate patient protections and to 
enforce what kind of care they should get either in a court of law or 
through external review.
  Vote for Norwood-Dingell. Vote against all the substitutes tomorrow.

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