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



                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the 
remarks of my colleague on the left from the State of Texas. And indeed 
he is making news today. Because, apparently, he is endorsing the 
candidacy of his governor, Governor Bush. And we certainly appreciate 
that act of bipartisanship. But in all sincerity and in all 
seriousness, Mr. Speaker, it is important that we do this as we defend 
patients' rights.
  The key on this House floor and in the hospitals and clinics and 
homes of America is this: We must make sure that we have a true 
Patients' Bill of Rights instead of a lawyer's right to bill. And as we 
see this morning in one of our national publications, Mr. Speaker, 
sadly this is true.
  I quote now, ``Yet trial lawyer money talks loudest of all now to 
many Democrats.'' And indeed it is increasingly clear the Democrat 
Party, with no ideological link to the private economy, is now reduced 
to redistributing income through litigation.
  We do not want a lawyer's right to bill. We want a patients' bill of 
rights.

                          ____________________