[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 24314]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              SUPPORT DEMOCRATS' PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. KLINK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KLINK. Madam Speaker, back in 1994, the insurance companies of 
this country spent tens of millions of dollars having Harry and Louise 
tell us that we did not want the Government to control our health care, 
and they won. And as a result, now the insurance companies control our 
health care. Now managed care means if we need health care, we are 
going to have to learn to manage.
  Beginning in early 1997, when I heard complaints from doctors and 
from patients, I held a series of health care forums across my 
district. Over 60 hours of testimony, 1,500 people and horror stories 
beyond comprehension. I brought those stories and the results of that 
to the Democratic caucus. We began holding hearings here on the lawn 
right outside the Capitol. And from that came a series of health care 
proposals, because we learned that the American people had lost 
complete confidence in the health care system.
  They were screaming for help and could not understand why we as 
Members of Congress let this go on so long. We had the best health care 
delivery system in the entire world, and we let it fall apart; and 
people could not understand why.
  Now, today, we have a chance to fix that. We can stop the insurance 
companies from deciding what doctor we can go to, if we can go to a 
doctor, what hospital, what kind of treatment we can get. We can put 
health care back in the hands of doctors and patients by passing 
Norwood-Dingell.




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