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




         WHITE HOUSE PROTECTS INSURANCE COMPANIES, NOT PATIENTS

  (Mr. SANDLIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, there is an old Charlie Daniels song that 
goes, ``The devil went down to Georgia. He was lookin' for a soul to 
steal. He was in a bind, he was way behind, and he was willing to make 
a deal.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, it seems that we have a similar situation in the 
House today. Only this time instead of betting a fiddle of gold, we are 
betting patients' lives in America.
  The administration has been in a bind; they have been way behind. 
When the House took up the patients' bill of rights 2 years ago, it 
passed with 275 votes in this House, with 68 of them coming from the 
Republican side of the aisle. That was a bipartisan patients' bill of 
rights.
  So the administration went down to Georgia and made a deal. In that 
deal, they sold out the patients. They tried to ensure that insurance 
company clerks made medical decisions in this country. They tried to 
ensure that insurance companies do not have responsibility for the 
decisions they make. They created a new legal standard in court that 
says, the insurance companies are right, the patient has to prove them 
wrong, and they increased the burden.
  Mr. Speaker, we have had enough of these deals. It is time to enact a 
real patients' bill of rights, one that gives some protections.
  There will be a Democratic caucus meeting at 11 o'clock, 345 Cannon, 
to discuss the patients' bill of rights.

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