Political Quotes

“I rise tonight to encourage our House leadership to bring the Patients' Bill of Rights to the floor as soon as possible, hopefully next week. The Senate took historic steps before the July 4 recess to pass a bipartisan, meaningful Patients' Bill of Rights. The McCain-Kennedy compromise legislation includes strong patient protections that will ensure high quality health care for millions of Americans with private health insurance coverage. These protections include: Access. Patients will be able to go directly to specialists. Women have the right to go to their OB-GYNs, and children directly to their pediatricians. Communication. The Senate bill eliminates gag clauses which prohibit doctors from discussing all the treatment options, even those not covered by the plan, with their patients. Emergency room care for patients who reasonably believe that they are suffering from an emergency medical condition, so they do not have to drive by an emergency hospital to go to the one that is on their list. Internal-external appeals, which ensures that patients have access to timely and appropriate health care. And probably the most important is accountability if an HMO's denial or delay of treatment causes a person's injury or death. Many critics of this legislation say it would result in an onslaught of frivolous and expensive litigation, but this compromise bill also included many provisions to prevent such lawsuits from taking place.”