Sylvester Turner: “this is a sad day for patients and their doctors. A good bipartisan bill, the Patients' Bill of Rights, went down to the…”

“this is a sad day for patients and their doctors. A good bipartisan bill, the Patients' Bill of Rights, went down to the White House yesterday and came back as the insurance companies' bill of rights. It went down to the White House as the patient protection act and came back the insurance company protection act. The President took a bill that has passed the Senate, the same bill that received almost two-thirds of the votes of this Chamber last year, and he negotiated away the rights of patients to secure the health care their doctors prescribe. The Patients' Bill of Rights was negotiated away by the President to giving a special deal to the insurance company, a deal that has never been granted to any individual or any business in the history of this country. If we vote for this bill, we will be rolling back the rights of patients for every State in the union. In Texas, we have had a Patients' Bill of Rights since 1997. It is working. It has not resulted in a flood of litigation. It has not resulted in higher health insurance premiums. We have had only 17 lawsuits. The President's proposal will repeal this good law that is working. I urge my colleagues to stand up for States' rights, stand up for patients and their doctors and pass the real patients' bill of rights.”