[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 141 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12777-S12778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as we reach the end of this session of 
Congress, it's essential that we act on the Patients' Bill of Rights 
before we adjourn. In passing the Norwood-Dingell bill two weeks ago, a 
solid, bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted for 
strong protections for patients against abuses by HMOs. Despite an 
extraordinary lobbying and disinformation campaign by the health 
insurance industry, the House approved the bill by a majority of 275-
151. Sixty-eight Republicans as well as almost every Democrat in the 
House stood up for patients and stood firm against industry pressure.
  Last Friday, the Senate appointed its conferees. Speaker Hastert has 
said that the House will appoint its conferees this week. Prompt action 
on strong reforms is clearly within our grasp. But a series of recent 
statements and actions provide ominous signs that the insurance 
industry and its friends in the Republican leadership are at it again. 
Their emerging strategy seems once again to be to delay and deny the 
relief that American families need and that the House overwhelmingly 
approved.
  The House vote was a major milestone toward enacting needed reform. 
It came after the Senate passed legislation with only sham protections 
by a narrow, partisan majority.
  It came after years of delay and denial by the Republican leadership 
in both Houses of Congress, working hand-in-hand with the health 
insurance companies and HMOs to block reform.
  Patients and doctors won a clear victory in the House. But now, the 
insurance industry and their allies in the House and the Senate 
Republican leadership are once again mobilizing to deny patients and 
doctors the protections they deserve. The ink is barely dry on the 
dramatic House vote, and opponents of reform are already talking about 
a new strategy of delay and denial--a strategy once again to put HMO 
profits first and patient protections last.
  The first part of this emerging strategy is to delay the work of the 
House-Senate conference committee as long as possible. A precondition 
for appointing conferees and beginning the conference is formal 
transmission of the House-passed bill to the Senate. That process 
normally takes a day or two at most.
  In fact, of 252 bills passed by the House in this Congress, the 
overwhelmingly majority were delivered to the Senate the day they were 
passed or the day after they were passed. Except for a few bills passed 
just before the beginning of a long recess, every bill passed by the 
House had been received by the Senate by the sixth day after passage. 
Yet, on the seventh day after the passage of the Norwood-Dingell bill, 
the legislation was still being held in the House of Representatives.
  Only after the release of a CRS study documenting the extraordinary 
delay in transmission of the legislation was the bill forwarded to the 
Senate and Senate conferees appointed.
  According to the Los Angeles Times, Senator Lott's response to 
passage of the House bill was that ``House-Senate conferences on other 
legislation have a higher priority and that resolving differences on 
this bill would take some time.''' According to the Baltimore Sun, 
Senator Lott also indicated that Congress might not have time to work 
out the differences and approve a final bill before it adjourns for the 
year. According to the New York Times, aides to Senator Nickles said 
that ``the conference committee will probably not begin serious work 
until early next year.'' And just this past Friday, CongressDaily 
reported that ``a Senate GOP aide said . . . Republicans do not plan to 
start the conference before the end of this year's session, despite the 
appointment of conferees.''
  Some Republicans are already beginning to lay the groundwork for a 
failed conference. Comparing the Senate and House bills, Congressman 
Bill Thomas said, ``You don't see many cross-breeds between Chihuahuas 
and Great Danes walking around.''
  And, of course, the fingerprints of Republican-industry collaboration 
are there to see for anyone who cares to look. As Bruce Josten of the 
U.S. Chamber of Commerce put it, ``To see nothing come out of the 
conference is my hope. The best outcome is no outcome.''
  Even if the strategy of delay and denial fails, the Republican 
leadership once again has an alternative to try to weaken the House 
bill as much as possible.
  As the Baltimore Sun reported, ``House Majority Whip Tom DeLay 
suggested that the Republican-dominated House conference would not 
fight vigorously for the House-approved measure in the Conference 
Committee.'' Mr. DeLay said, ``Remember who controls the conference: 
the Speaker of the House.''

[[Page S12778]]

  A conference that produces legislation that looks like the Senate 
Republican bill would break faith with the American people, make a 
mockery of the overwhelming vote in the House of Representatives, and 
cause unnecessary suffering for millions of patients.
  That is why more than 300 groups representing patients, doctors, 
nurses, and other caregivers, and families support the Norwood-Dingell 
bill, but only the insurance industry supports the Senate proposal.
  For every patient right in the Senate Republican bill, there is an 
industry loophole. If the truth in labeling law applied to legislation, 
every page of the bill would flunk the test, because every promise of 
patient protection comes with loopholes to protect HMOs and health 
insurers. The promise to patients is always broken.
  At its most basic level, the decision before Congress is whether 
critical medical decisions will be made by doctors and patients, or HMO 
accountants.
  It is time to protect families against abuses by a faceless insurance 
bureaucracy that can rob average citizens of their savings and their 
peace of mind, and often their health and their very lives.
  For the millions of Americans who rely on health insurance to protect 
them and their loved ones when serious illness strikes, the Norwood-
Dingell bill is a matter of life and death, and deserves to be passed 
by Congress.
  Every day we delay in passing these reforms means that more patients 
will suffer and die. Congress has an obligation to act and to act now.
  The abuses that take place every day should have no place in American 
medicine. Every doctor knows it. Every nurse knows it. Every patient 
knows it. The American people know it--and it is time the Republican 
leadership heeded their views.
  The first test of the sincerity of the Republican leadership will 
come this week when the House conferees are appointed. Will a majority 
of the House conferees come from those who supported the Norwood-
Dingell bill, not just on final passage, but on the critical vote to 
replace it with the leadership-backed alternative?
  The second test will come in the conference itself. The danger is 
that the process will go into slow motion so that nothing happens until 
Congress adjourns for this session. There is ample time for genuine 
bipartisan negotiations to produce a strong, bipartisan bill that 
Congress can pass and the President can sign before the session ends.
  The issues are well-known. There is no need for the conference to be 
time-consuming--no need unless the objective is to pass a watered down 
bill, or nothing at all. The Norwood-Dingell bill received overwhelming 
bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. The Senate 
conferees should do the right thing and simply accept that bill.
  The choice is clear. Prompt action to protect patients and their 
families--or more delay and denial. Those who profit from the status 
quo have delayed action long enough. It is time for Congress to provide 
every family the protection they deserve.
  Mr. President, Friday, we had the appointment of the conferees to 
represent the Senate with the House of Representatives on the HMO bill, 
the Patients' Bill of Rights legislation.
  We want to let the Senate know we are prepared to meet today, 
tomorrow, the next day, and every single day to try to get a resolution 
of that issue because we know that every single day we do not act and 
have strong legislation, like the House of Representatives, American 
families are endangered and Americans are being hurt. That is wrong. We 
have the chance to act. On our side of the aisle, we are prepared to 
take action. We are prepared to meet. We believe this is one of the 
most important efforts we will have in this Congress.
  We will continue to challenge our colleagues on the other side to 
move ahead and have a conference. We have debated these issues. We have 
had a long time to debate them. We have had extensive debates in 
committee and for over a week on the floor of the Senate.
  Let's get about protecting the American citizens on that Patients' 
Bill of Rights--letting doctors make decisions rather than accountants. 
Every day, as I mentioned, that we fail to do so, we fail to protect 
American families. We want to go about America's business and families' 
business on health care. We are prepared to meet in conference now and 
every day in the future.
  I thank the Chair.

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