[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
[July 11, 2001]
[Pages 840-841]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With Medical Organization Leaders
July 11, 2001

    Thank you. Be seated, please. Dr. Perry, 
thank you very much. It's great to welcome you up from Monroe, 
Louisiana. Mr. Secretary--Madam Secretary, thank you all for being here. 
It's good to see Members of the United States Congress--thank you all 
for coming; my fellow Americans.
    We've just come from a great meeting with leaders of medical 
organizations that represent over 300,000 doctors--specialists, men and 
women from around our country who are deeply concerned about the state 
of the practice of medicine, health care professionals that care deeply 
about not only the practice of medicine but more importantly the 
patients that they see, men and women whose whole life is aimed at 
improving the lives of their fellow citizens, as a result of their 
brilliant skills. We had a frank discussion about medicine today and 
where medicine is headed. And we share a concern that many patients are 
not receiving the quality of care that we would hope they would receive.
    And so we're now debating this issue in Congress, how best to 
improve the quality of care without unnecessarily running up the cost of 
medicine, without encouraging more lawsuits, which will eventually cause 
people not to be able to have health insurance.
    And there's a good alternative working through the House of 
Representatives that my administration supports. It's called the 
Fletcher bill. It's a piece of legislation which says that patients 
ought to have direct access to specialists. These men and women who 
represent specialists all across America embrace this bill, the bill 
that my administration supports, because of direct access to 
specialists. And that's important. It's a very important part of the 
legislation.
    I know there's some talk that the bill that came out of the Senate 
is the only one that the doctors in America are for. Well, I think if 
people take a good look and those who hadn't made up their mind yet in 
the House listened to the voices up here, they will hear there's plenty 
of doctors who believe that the Fletcher bill is the proper alternative, 
so patients get the quality of care they need without the fear of losing 
health insurance, without the fear that businesses, large and small, 
might decide rather than being sued all the time and, therefore, drop 
provisions for health care in total. That's something we don't want in 
our society. We want more people covered, not less. We want the cost of 
medicine not to be driven up by unnecessary litigation. The Fletcher 
bill provides safeguards.
    Now there's another issue that's important, and that is the external 
review process. It's an incredibly important part of any medical 
system--future medical system, if we want it to work. And that process 
basically says, if you're a patient and you and

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your doc don't agree with the decisions made by the health insurance 
company, that you ought to be able to appeal to a panel of doctors. And 
if the panel of doctors rule in your favor, the insurance company is 
obligated to move forward. If not, it becomes a cause of action in a 
court of law.
    I just had the opportunity of meeting with Helen Barnes, a nurse-practitioner from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. 
Thank you for being here, Helen. She was in an automobile accident, and 
ever since, she's suffered severe muscular problems in her back and her 
neck. So she and her doc thought that she ought to have a mammoplasty to 
ease her pain. Her HMO denied her request for surgery. She then appealed 
the decision to an external medical review process. They ruled in her 
favor. She took her case to an objective review 
process, a review panel, and they said she and her doc were right. And 
so she's going to receive the surgery she needs this January. I said, 
``Why not sooner?'' She said, because she can't find time to get off 
work sooner. [Laughter]
    But nevertheless, the process works. And it's so important that we 
have a tight external review process, one that addresses patients' 
needs, not the needs of people who want to sue everybody; one that's 
focused on the patients of America so that they can take their claims to 
a panel of experts--medical experts and have their problems addressed as 
quickly and as soon as possible.
    The issue we ought to be discussing is quality of care for patients. 
That's the whole focus of medicine. And that ought to be the focus of 
any legislation that comes out of the United States Congress. And the 
Fletcher bill that is now being debated on the House floor represents 
the kind of legislation that my administration can support, that 
thousands of doctors across America support, and I believe most 
Americans will support when they hear the facts and the differences 
between the two pieces of legislation that are now being debated on the 
House floor.
    I want to thank our doctor friends for being here. I want to thank 
you for your service to your respective communities. The docs in America 
really are a part of--medical professionals are a part of really what 
makes this country great. We've got the best health care in the world--
by far, the best health care in the world--and we've got to make sure 
that any legislation, any laws passed out of Washington, enhances the 
health care for America and doesn't hurt it. And I believe the Fletcher 
bill will help and enhance the great medical care that we have in our 
country.
    Thank you all for coming. Thank you for the endorsement of a good 
piece of legislation. And may God bless your work, and God bless 
America.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:50 p.m. in Presidential Hall in the 
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he 
referred to Priscilla Perry, M.D., representative, American Society of 
Cataract and Refractive Surgery.