[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14507]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             GANSKE-DINGELL-NORWOOD BEST CHOICE FOR AMERICA

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, my constituents want a strong and enforceable 
Patients' Bill of Rights. They are tired of HMOs who deny them the 
health care that they need. They are tired of insurance company 
bureaucrats who overrule doctors' decisions. They want a bill like 
Ganske-Dingell-Norwood and others to protect the patients that they are 
supposedly required to protect because only this bill gives every 
American the right to choose their own doctor, the right to see health 
care specialists, the right to have direct access to an OB-GYN or a 
pediatrician, and the right to get prescription drugs that their 
physicians prescribe.
  Only this bill holds health care plans accountable when they make a 
decision that harms or kills someone. Only this bill ensures that 
external reviews of medical decisions are conducted by independent and 
qualified experts.
  We should take a chapter out of what happened in California. Our 
Governor there passed major reforms in HMOs, and I think that this 
House should take a look at what has happened there. They have done a 
fantastic job in actually being able to negotiate before they actually 
have to go to the court house.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask for the support of my colleagues on this 
legislation.

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