[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 25, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H4547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               VOTE FOR THE REAL PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. SCHIFF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Norwood-Dingell-
Ganske Patients' Bill of Rights.
  For 5 years now, advocates of better health care have advocated for 
the real Patients' Bill of Rights, only to see that legislation shot 
down in this House. This year, the fight goes on, and this year, as in 
the fight with campaign finance reform, opponents of a real Patients' 
Bill of Rights have offered a phoney. They cannot defeat it directly, 
so they try to defeat it indirectly with a watered-down, industry-
supported version.
  Mr. Speaker, we must reject this. To use the parlance of the industry 
itself, we ought to tell the industry, we need strong medicine to 
restore the relationship between patients and their physicians, and 
that bill, that alternative, is simply not on the formulary. That bill 
exceeds the scope of coverage. That bill simply cannot get in the door 
without referrals to specialists.
  We need a real Patients' Bill of Rights. I worked on a real Patients' 
Bill of Rights in California and, like my colleague, we passed that 
bill, as in 30 other States, and now the alternative here, the Fletcher 
bill, would undermine the work of so many States around the country 
that have worked to foster the relationship between patient and 
physician. This cannot be allowed to happen.

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