[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 31 (Monday, August 9, 1999)]
[Pages 1534-1535]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address 

July 31, 1999

    Good morning. More than a year and a half ago, I asked Congress to 
pass a strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights that ensures 
critical protections for Americans in managed care, from the right to 
see a specialist if your doctor recommends it, to the right to emergency 
room care whenever and wherever you need it, to the right to keep your 
doctor through a treatment--even if your employer changes HMO coverage--
to the right to hold health plans accountable for harmful decisions.
    Now, according to a new survey out just this week, physicians 
believe that when their patients are denied services under managed care, 
up to two-thirds of the time those denials lead to serious declines in 
patients' health. Clearly, patients need protections. The bottom line 
must never take precedence over patients' needs, and too often it does 
today.
    Using my authority as President, I've already acted to make these 
rights real for 85 million Americans who get their health care through 
Federal plans, from Medicare and Medicaid to the Veterans Administration 
health plan that serves millions of veterans and their families. 
Evidence shows putting in patients' rights raised the cost of these 
plans by only a dollar a month, so we know these rights are affordable, 
as well as crucial. Yet, until Congress acts, tens of millions of 
Americans in managed care are still waiting for the full protection of a 
Patients' Bill of Rights. Democrats in Congress have long been pressing 
to pass a strong Patients' Bill of Rights that would cover all Americans 
in all health care plans. And nearly every doctors' association, every 
nurses' association, every patients' rights group in America--over 200 
of them--supports this approach.
    The Republican leadership in Congress, on the other hand, has long 
resisted, supporting instead a weak alternative that is a Patients' Bill 
of Rights in name only. It doesn't even cover 100 million Americans. 
Now, the Senate barely passed such a weak bill over the opposition of 
every single Democratic Member and a couple of brave Republicans. 
Hopefully, we can still make progress. Just this week, several 
Republican House Members, led by some who, themselves, are doctors, 
forcefully raised their voices in support of a strong, enforceable 
Patients' Bill of Rights. This is very good news, indeed. It means there 
is a bipartisan consensus emerging behind a bill that would give all 
Americans the health protections they need. This bill should be debated 
and voted on this coming week, before Congress adjourns for the summer. 
If that happens, I believe the bill would pass, and the American people 
would benefit.
    Unfortunately, House Republican leaders, who earlier this week said 
they would schedule a vote on the Patients' Bill of Rights this

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month, yesterday began backing away from that commitment when it became 
clear that a real Patients' Bill of Rights might well pass. This is very 
disappointing, and I call on them to reconsider. If the House is brave 
enough to protect the American people over the intense lobbying of the 
health insurance companies, the Republican leadership shouldn't stand in 
their way. The American people sent us to Washington to get work done, 
and Congress shouldn't go on summer vacation without voting on the 
Patients' Bill of Rights.
    Protecting patients' rights shouldn't be a political issue; after 
all, no one asks us what our party affiliation is when we show up at the 
emergency room or the doctor's office. And in fact, this isn't a 
partisan issue anywhere else in America. It shouldn't be in Washington, 
DC. Let's make this summer a season of progress for all Americans. Let's 
hold an open and fair debate and pass a real Patients' Bill of Rights 
that will truly strengthen our health care system, strengthen our 
families, and strengthen our Nation for the 21st century.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at approximately 10 p.m. on July 30 
aboard Air Force One at Aviano Air Force Base, Italy, for broadcast at 
10:06 a.m. on July 31. The transcript was made available by the Office 
of the Press Secretary on July 30 but was embargoed for release until 
the broadcast.