[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 29182]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE 106TH CONGRESS

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks and include therein 
extraneous material.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, when I came to Capitol Hill 10 months ago 
to represent my hometown of Las Vegas, I made a promise to fight for 
the fastest growing senior population in the country and for all of the 
working families like mine that have moved to Las Vegas in search of a 
better life.
  There are two pieces of unfinished business that are critical to my 
district, a patients' bill of rights and the prescription drug coverage 
for southern Nevada citizens.
  Over and over again I hear from my constituents, from working parents 
worried about health care coverage for their families, from seniors 
having to choose between buying food and buying medicine. They need 
help and they do not care about Washington politics. The patients' bill 
of rights is a bipartisan issue because everybody should be able to 
determine the best course of medical treatment and consultation with 
their own doctor. If HMOs make decisions like doctors, they should be 
held legally accountable like a doctor.
  We need to enact a bill that protects the patients' bill of rights, 
not the HMO's bottom line. We need to pass a bill to ensure 
prescription drug coverage for seniors. We did a cost survey and found 
that uninsured seniors in my district pay two, three, or four times the 
price that insured seniors pay for some of the most common prescription 
drugs. These drugs keep them alive, but financially it is killing them.
  I stand up for all of the seniors in my district.

                          ____________________