[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         HMO REFORM AND GUARANTEEING A PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. WYNN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk today about changing the 
subject. We are having a discussion here in Congress about the 
patients' bill of rights. It is a bipartisan discussion in which both 
Democrats and Republicans agree that we need to protect patients' 
rights: access to specialists, emergency room coverage, coverage for 
all kinds of illnesses when it is needed. We need to have the right to 
sue if the HMO causes harm to someone's health. That is what we are 
talking about, but now the Republican leadership wants to change the 
subject.
  All of a sudden, they want to talk about medical savings accounts and 
access to health care. They have several ideas. Some are good; some are 
bad. The point is, do not change the subject. The subject is HMO 
reform. The subject is guaranteeing a patients' bill of rights with 
real teeth in it.
  We have a bipartisan agreement. We have the Dingell-Norwood bill that 
makes sense. We are having a good discussion. Do not change the 
subject. Let us stick with the patients' bill of rights. Let us pass a 
clean bill. Their ideas are not paid for. They should not be brought up 
in the context of this issue. Let us protect patients first, and then 
we will deal with some of these other issues.

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