[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 19183]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                WE NEED A TRUE PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. WEYGAND asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WEYGAND. Madam Speaker, how many times have we heard about a 
woman being denied to designate her OB-GYN doctor as her primary care 
physician? How many times have we heard about patients being denied 
emergency room care because an HMO bureaucrat has said no to the 
billing? How many times have we heard doctors say, we need more time to 
stay for this patient, but the HMO has said no?
  Sometimes these decisions cause harm, sometimes even death. The 
Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed with certainly 
unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. Serving as the foundation for our Bill of Rights, it is now 
time to call for a true Patients' Bill of Rights, a Patients' Bill of 
Rights that will provide real access to emergency room care, will 
strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and most importantly, most 
importantly, provide patients with the right to hold insurance 
companies for wrongdoing, to be able to sue them when they are wrong.
  Let us provide a true Patients' Bill of Rights, and declare a 
Declaration of Independence from the gag rules of HMOs. Please support 
a true Patients' Bill of Rights.




                          ____________________