    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 11 (Monday, March 22, 1999)]
    [Pages 457-458]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Statement on Patients' Rights Legislation

    March 17, 1999

        Today the Congress is beginning its work on patients' rights
    legislation. This issue is critical to assuring Americans high quality
    health care in the 21st century, so I am pleased that we are moving
    forward.
        Unfortunately, the proposal by the Chairman of the Senate Health,
    Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee falls far short of the
    legislation the American people deserve. Because it applies patients'
    rights only to those in self-insured plans, this proposal leaves 120
    million Americans in insured and individual

    [[Page 458]]

    plans without the guarantee of critical protections. Millions of
    Americans should not be held hostage to the hope that their State might
    pass legislation providing these protections. In fact, while States have
    the authority to pass patient protections for these plans, not one has
    enacted all of these protections. That is why we need strong Federal
    legislation to ensure that all health plans provide patients these
    important rights.
        Even for those it does cover, the Chairman's proposal leaves out
    many of the most fundamental protections. For example, it does not have
    an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that patients are
    compensated when they are injured or die as a result of a health plan's
    decisions; it does not assure patients access to specialists, such as
    oncologists or heart specialists; and it leaves our continuity of care
    protections. That is why every major patient, doctor, and nurse advocacy
    organization has concluded that this proposal is simply inadequate.
        Today represents the first test of whether this new Congress is
    serious about providing Americans with a strong, enforceable Patients'
    Bill of Rights to assure high quality health care. I urge the Committee
    to do everything it can to pass this test and give Americans the health
    care protections they need.