Lizzie Fletcher: “I just wanted to rise and discuss some issues regarding patient protections. As we know, this is a piece of legislation…”

“I just wanted to rise and discuss some issues regarding patient protections. As we know, this is a piece of legislation that is anticipated to come before this body next week. It is a piece of legislation that has been debated for quite some time for a number of years here. Yet, unfortunately, we seem to be at somewhat of a logjam. Let me say that we have been able to reach quite a compromise position in the bill that we have put forth, myself along with the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), a Democrat, as well as the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson), who have worked very, very hard to really come together with a piece of legislation that is a very balanced approach. Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way. However, there are some Members who did not want to increase the liabilities of HMOs at all. There are some people who wanted to open up unlimited lawsuits that would have driven up the cost of health care and increased the number of uninsured in this country. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we have reached a good balance in this piece of legislation, the Fletcher-Peterson-Johnson legislation, that does three things particularly. One, it increases the quality of health care in America. How does it do this? It does that by establishing the right of every patient in America that has insurance to be able to appeal to a panel of expert physicians.”