    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [March 2, 2000]
    [Pages 355-357]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Patients' Bill of Rights Legislation
    March 2, 2000

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, and good morning. Dr.
    Herald, thank you for your powerful statement. I
    would like to thank Senator Kennedy,
    Senator Specter, Senator Chafee for being here; and Representatives
    Norwood and Dingell, Representatives Berry,
    Morella, and DeLauro; Secretary Shalala, Secretary
    Herman.
        I especially thank the doctors and nurses who stand with us today,
    the Patients' Bill of Rights coalition, representing our Nation's top
    health, consumer, and provider organizations.
        Dr. Herald's testimony was powerful, but
    unfortunately, as she made it clear, not unique. For more than 2 years,
    we've heard health care professionals tell us the same thing. For more
    than 2 years, we've heard heart-wrenching accounts of families across
    our Nation denied the basic patient protections they need. For more than
    2 years, we've worked for a strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights
    that says you have the right to the nearest emergency room care, the
    right to see a specialist, the right to know you can't be forced to
    switch doctors in the middle of a treatment, the right to hold your
    health care plan accountable.
        Along the way, with the help of others in our administration, I've
    done everything I could, through executive action, to extend patient
    safeguards to some 85 million Americans who get

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    their health care through Federal plans, to provide similar patient
    protections to every child covered under the Children's Health Insurance
    Program. But no State law and no executive action can do what Congress
    alone has the power to do. Only Federal legislation can assure all
    Americans and all plans get all the patient protection they need.
        Thanks to the leadership of Congressman Norwood, Congressman Dingell, and
    the other Members here, the House of Representatives passed such a bill,
    with the support of 275 Members, including 68 members of the Republican
    caucus. It is a truly bipartisan bill.
        Later today a conference committee will meet to take up the
    legislation. Many of the conferees do not reflect the will of the
    majority in the House or the will of the majority in the country. I told
    Congressman Norwood right before we came in
    here that I think this issue is the only issue with which I have dealt
    since I've been President that generated any controversy where there is,
    in the country, almost no difference in the level of support between
    Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Every major national survey
    shows that well over 70 percent of all Americans, without regard to
    their political party, support a strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of
    Rights. The American people support it, and they're entitled to have
    their elected Representatives ratify it.
        The Norwood-Dingell bill is the only bipartisan patient protection
    bill on the table. So far, it's the only bill that can make its way to
    my desk. I will not sign legislation, as Dr. Herald said, that is a
    Patients' Bill of Rights in name only. It's not a real Patients' Bill of
    Rights if it denies people the right to see a specialist, if it fails to
    guarantee access to the nearest emergency room care, if it denies the
    right to stay with a health care provider throughout a course of
    treatment, and if it has a weak appeals process that's tilted against
    the patients, if it doesn't include a strong enforcement mechanism to
    hold a health care plan accountable, or if it leaves more than 100
    million of our fellow Americans out. We need a bill that covers all our
    fellow citizens, not one that provides cover for special interests.
        Again I say, this is not a partisan issue anywhere else in the
    entire United States of America. And I am honored that we have had the
    bipartisan support we have had. This legislation has the endorsement of
    more than 300 health care and consumer groups across our country. So as
    the conference committee gets down to business, I ask them to listen to
    the voices of people like Dr. Herald, the people
    who live in the health care system, the people who know how it works,
    the people whose first concern is for their patients and their families
    and their future. It is time to reach across party lines and do this.
        Let me say that if the Congress will send me a strong, enforceable
    Patients' Bill of Rights today, I'll send every one of them an
    invitation to a signing ceremony tomorrow. [Laughter] Nothing would
    please me more than to see this issue removed from the context of
    partisan political debate and embedded in the daily lives of all our
    citizens.
        It is now my privilege to present the sponsor of the Norwood-Dingell
    bill, a long-time dentist, a man who has simply acted on his convictions
    and his experience. And I think we would all do well to listen to him.
    It's probably a little harder for him to come out for this bill than it
    was for me, and I feel particularly indebted to Congressman Charlie
    Norwood.
        Representative Norwood.

    [At this point, Representatives Charlie Norwood and John D. Dingell and
    Senators Arlen Specter and Edward M.
    Kennedy made brief remarks.]

        The President. Well, I just want to end on sort of a cautionary but
    clarion note. Where I come from, this exercise that we have just engaged
    in is known as preaching to the saved. [Laughter] And it's very
    important. But this is one of those examples where the public and the
    people that really know how the system works are in the same place. And
    I believe a majority of Members of Congress, if--as Congressman Norwood
    said so eloquently, if they're permitted--they're given a good bill to
    vote for, they'll vote for it. So the only way that we won't get a good
    bill is if this conference committee prevents the Congress from voting
    on a bill they would like to vote for, that is consistent with not only
    what the majority of the American people want but virtually 100 percent
    of the medical professionals in the country and a majority of the
    Congress.
        So that's what the stakes are. I am profoundly indebted to the
    Members who are here, to all the health care professionals who are here,
    to Dr. Herald who spoke so well. But I ask you
    to remember the work is ahead of us. And I

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    think we need to, all of us, each in our own way, go to work to impress
    upon that conference committee their profound responsibility to give the
    Congress and the country the bill they want to vote on and the bill they
    want to live under.
        Let's get to work. Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in Presidential Hall in the Dwight
    D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to
    Mary Herald, member, American College of Physicians-American Society of
    Internal Medicine, who introduced the President.