[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 135 (Thursday, October 7, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS MANAGED CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT

  (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2723, 
the Bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act of 1999.
  Enactment of this bill is the answer to the letter I received from a 
mother and a constituent in my district. She wrote, ``When my middle 
son was born, the insurance company wouldn't let my son stay in the 
hospital one extra day to finish the course of antibiotics. They sent 
him home with a shunt in his arm. The neonatologist has warned us that 
typically in babies so small the shunt comes out and then you have to 
start the antibiotics all over again orally and that they would upset 
the baby's symptom, causing severe intestinal distress and diarrhea, 
not good for a newborn. My son's shunt came out, and he screamed for 2 
weeks.''
  This baby deserved better. This bill assures that doctors, not 
insurance companies, decide how long newborns get to stay in the 
hospital when they are sick. Let us act now. Let us pass H.R. 2723.

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