[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 111 (Thursday, August 2, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H5183-H5184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 VOTE DOWN BAD PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it has been 5 long years that 
many of us have toiled and worked and collaborated and offered 
legislation that really puts the patient-physician relationship as a 
top priority.
  There is not one of us in America that has not confronted the health 
system in a David-and-Goliath posture, with the HMOs being Goliath and 
the patient, David. Sometimes David has won, maybe other times David 
has failed.

[[Page H5184]]

  I come from Texas, and I believe that this Congress should not do 
less for the American people than we did for Texas. Take this example. 
A loved one lying on a hospital bed, you in a hospital telephone booth 
confronting your HMO. And out of the bill that will come to the floor 
today, against the HMO, you will be in the wrong, they will be in the 
right. The presumption of rightness will be with them, and your loved 
one lies dying on a hospital bed.
  Vote down this bad patients' bill of rights.

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