[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 135 (Thursday, October 7, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H9519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     AMERICANS SHOULD VOICE THEIR SUPPORT FOR NORWOOD-DINGELL BILL

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, yesterday I introduced into 
the Record the testimony from Dr. Thomas W. Self, an M.D. educated at 
Yale and UCLA, but an M.D. that has fallen victim to being terminated 
because his only grievance and error was spending too much time with 
patients.
  Today, America's voices can be heard, and we ask that all Americans' 
voices be heard on a revolutionary idea, that is, that the patient and 
the physician are the two most important individuals who should assess 
the health condition of American patients on the precipice of the 21st 
century.
  Today we have the opportunity to defeat poison pill bills that will 
do nothing but undermine the true essence of what we are trying to do. 
The Norwood-Dingell bill will emphasize the relationship of patient to 
physician. It will allow individuals to get into an emergency room, 
allow them to get the care that they need; it will allow women to have 
a relationship with their OB-GYN, and it will ensure that a patient can 
press their grievance when medical care is denied.
  This is a day when patients will be able to determine that they are 
not commodities but that they are people. America should, today, let 
their voices be heard on the floor of the United States Congress that 
the Norwood-Dingell bill should pass.

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