[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23804-23805]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 REPUBLICANS REJECT GOVERNOR BUSH'S ADVICE ON PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, there is good news. The House Republicans 
have apparently yielded on their cruel plan to defer the earned income 
tax credit for working families, a plan deplored by Governor George W. 
Bush as, in his words, ``balancing the budget on the backs of the 
poor.''
  But there is also bad news. The Republicans are so out of touch with 
the needs of American families that they have rejected Governor Bush's 
advice on the Patients' Bill of Rights that we will be debating 
tomorrow.
  Our Lone Star State has been a national leader on reforming managed 
care. Although Governor Bush initially fell victim to the same old 
tired insurance company rhetoric upon which our House Republican 
friends now rely, he permitted our Texas Patients' Bill of Rights to be 
signed into law. And last

[[Page 23805]]

week his office declared it has ``worked well.'' Who could say 
otherwise with only five lawsuits from 4 million Texans over 2 years in 
managed care.
  Governor Bush's insurance commissioner has declared it ``a real 
success story,'' ``one of the leading'' consumer protection measures in 
the country. If the Republican leadership will get out of the way, we 
will do the same for all of America.

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