For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 21, 2001
Remarks by the President to the American College of Cardiology Annual Convention
Orange County Convention Center Orlando, Florida
Listen to the President's
Remarks
10:24 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you
all. Thank you very much. George, thank you very
much for your kind
introduction. Doctor. Doctor. (Laughter.)
I'm honored to be here, and it's an honor to be your President.
I thought about inviting Vice President Cheney
to travel with me today
-- (laughter) -- he said he's seen enough cardiologists lately.
(Laughter.) I'm pleased to report that he's feeling
great. (Applause.) And you'll be happy to know that when it
comes to following doctor's orders, he's a model patient.
I appreciate so very much the leadership of
this august organization having me here, and I appreciate the fact that
they invited my bigger little
brother. (Laughter.) I can't tell you how proud I
am of Jeb. He is a really fine governor of this important
state. (Applause.)
I'm also pleased to be traveling with members
of the United States Congress from the state of
Florida: John Mica, Ric Keller and Dave Weldon.
Thank you all for coming with
me. (Applause.) Weldon informed me he's a
doctor. He's representing your interests in the halls of
Congress.
And today we're in the home town of the new
Secretary of Housing, Mel
Martinez. (Applause.) I'm proud that Mel is the
first Cuban American to serve in a President's Cabinet. Mr.
Secretary, welcome home -- but don't stay too
long. (Laughter.) You're going back to Washington
with me, we've
got a lot of work to do.
You know, I haven't been in front of so money
people who poke and prod
and examine since my last press
conference. (Laughter.) And I appreciate the
chance to visit with so many distinguished doctors and their
families. So many Americans live longer, healthier and
happier lives because of the
important work you all do every single day. And I'm glad to
have an opportunity to thank you in person.
Modern medicine continues to bring a
revolution of hope and dignity into countless lives. The
average [life] expectancy in America today is 29
years longer than it was just a century ago. And those
added years now have added vigor. Many forms of cancer,
once incurable, are routinely treated and often cured.
Diseases that grow more common with age, such
as arthritis and osteoporosis can be less debilitating than they once
were. And heart disease, though still the leading cause of death in
America for both men and women, is claiming fewer lives than ever
before. Just 40 years ago, when patients were diagnosed with
serious heart disease, treatment meant putting them in a hospital bed
and trying to make them comfortable.
Today, thanks to new surgeries, devices and
drugs, and thanks to doctors and researchers behind them, millions of
Americans with heart disease live vigorous, productive
lives. And Dick Cheney serves his country as Vice President
of the United States. (Applause.)
This ongoing revolution in medicine is
centered in America, and for good reason -- medical advances depend on
innovation and innovation depends
on freedom. America has wisely resisted efforts to place
medicine and health care into the hands of central
planners. (Applause.) Government-controlled health care may
spring from the best of motives, but a cumbersome bureaucracy and
one-size-fits-all approach stifle innovation and do not produce the
best of results.
There is an appropriate role for government in
funding medical research, protecting consumers and providing health
care for our senior citizens. Our health care system is
strong and it can be stronger. And as
we improve and reform it, we must always respect the freedom that
makes America's health care system the best in the world.
This year we have a real opportunity to
improve health care. Today, I
want to talk about protecting the doctor-patient relationships with a
patients' bill of rights. But, first, I can't resist putting
in a plug for
my budget and for tax relief. (Applause.)
My budget funds our nation's important
priorities, including many health care priorities. We
increase funding for education and for military
pay and benefits. We set aside $2.6 trillion of payroll
taxes over the next 10 years for Social Security and for only Social
Security. We double funding for Medicare over the next 10
years, and make sure that every dime that comes in for Medicare is
spent only on Medicare.
And as you know better than most, Medicare
urgently needs reform. At a time when prescription drugs are
often the treatment of choice for heart disease and many other
illnesses, 99 percent of employer-provided health care plans offer some
form of prescription drug coverage; yet, Medicare does
not. Often, Medicare does not cover new treatments and
innovative technologies. The Medicare bureaucracy is rigid
and difficult and too often treats doctors as if you have nothing
better to do than fill out forms. (Applause.)
To offer our seniors better coverage and
better health care, Medicare needs new life and new
vitality. One of the leaders in the effort to modernize
Medicare is a heart surgeon, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee.
(Applause.) He's joined with Democrat Senator John Breaux
and Republican Congressman Bill Thomas to set out a framework for
reform. And I'm committed to working with Congress to reform
Medicare and to make sure that
every senior has access to affordable prescription drug coverage.
(Applause.) My budget also proposes refundable
tax credits to make health insurance more affordable for working
families. I propose making it easier
for small businesses to join together so that they can purchase better
and more affordable health coverage for their workers. And
we increase funding for community and migrant health centers, so that
over the next five years we double the number of people served at
community centers in rural and low income neighborhoods.
I've also asked Congress to increase funding
for medical research, which gives hope to many who struggle with
serious disease. My budget for next year requests an
additional $2.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health, an
important step toward our goal of doubling the budget for the
NIH by the year 2003. (Applause.)
We've increased discretionary spending by 4
percent, greater than the rate of inflation. And after we
fund important priorities in the ongoing operations of our government,
I believe we ought to pay down national debt. And so my
budget pays down a record $2 trillion in debt over the next 10
years. And that sets up a $1 trillion contingency fund for
emergencies or additional expenses. After funding
priorities, after paying down debt, after setting up a contingency fund
we still have money left over.
And the fundamental question is, what do we do
with it? Well, some in
Congress want to spend it. They want to increase the size
and scope of the federal government. That's not my
vision. You see, I understand the surplus is not the
government's money. The surplus is the peoples' money.
(Applause.) And I believe after meeting
priorities, we need to send it back to the people who earned it in the
first place. Not only send it back, we don't need to take it in the
first place. (Applause.)
This debate in Washington has moved beyond
whether we should have tax relief, to how much it should be and who
should get it. Now, to put it bluntly, some folks in
Washington think all of the doctors in this room make too much money
and you shouldn't get any of your money back. That's a
fact. I know you've worked hard to get to where you
are. You spent long hours in training and
school. You do important, life-saving work. You
also pay a lot of taxes. And I think everybody, everyone who
pay taxes -- from the school teacher to the truck driver to the doctor
-- should get tax
relief. (Applause.)
Be wary of those who talk about targeted tax
cuts in Washington. Those who want to pick the winners and
losers. That's not my vision for government. I
don't believe the government is to try to pick winners and losers in
the tax code. The only fair way to do it is to say if you
pay taxes, you ought to get relief. My plan helps those at
the bottom end of the economic scale. It lowers the rate to
10 percent and doubles the child
credit. In fact, the greatest percentage benefits in my
plan go to those at the lowest end of the economic ladder.
But my plan also drops the top rate from 39.6
to 33 percent, because I
believe on principle that nobody in America, nobody in this room,
should pay more than a third of his or her income to the federal
government. (Applause.) I hope you'll join me in making the
case to Congress to enact a fiscally responsible budget and provide
meaningful tax relief. It is necessary and we can afford
it. Don't be afraid of contacting a senator of
yours, or a member of the Congress. I'm sure they'd like to
hear from you. (Laughter.)
And there is another issue I hope you'll join
me on -- persuading those very same members of both parties to work
together to pass a comprehensive and meaningful patients' bill of
rights. (Applause.) I'm very familiar with this
issue. When I was Governor of Texas I had to veto a bad
patients' bill of rights. And then I signed some good ones.
First, I was presented a bill that gave
special interest treatment to selected HMOs. So I vetoed
it. (Applause.) And then worked with our
insurance commissioner to write new patient protections that I proudly
signed into law the next legislative session. I don't want
that to happen again. This time I hope we can get it right
the first time.
Doctors and their patients should be in charge
of medical decisions. I want to sign a patients' bill of rights this
year, but I will not sign a bad one. And I cannot sign any
one that is now before the Congress. So enacting a patients'
bill of rights this year is going to require some different thinking, a
new approach, based on sound principles.
First, a federal patients' bill of rights must
cover everyone, all patients in all private health
plans. The standard should be strong enough
to protect everyone, yet flexible enough to preserve the good work
that has already been done in many states.
Second, we must guarantee all patients
important rights: the right to
get emergency treatment at the nearest emergency room; the right to
see a specialist when they need one -- say, just for an example, the
right to see
a cardiologist for a heart problem. (Applause.)
Women should be able to visit their
gynecologist and parents their children's pediatrician without going
through a gatekeeper. (Applause.) All patients should have
the right to participate in potentially life-saving clinical trials
when standard treatment is not effective. (Applause.)
Third, if medical care is denied, patients
should have the right to a fair and immediate
review. (Applause.) People want health care
quickly. They don't want to have to go through a legal, lengthy
process to get it. I want to sign a bill that protects patients'
rights with a strong, binding, independent review
process. If your health plan -- if your health
plan denies you care, you should be able to appeal immediately to an
independent, impartial review panel of medical doctors.
And if they say you need the care, your health
care plan must provide it. (Applause.) An
effective medical review is the key to protecting patients' rights and
the key to maintaining the doctor-patient relationship
you work so hard to develop and preserve.
Fourth, a patients' bill of rights should
offer patients who have been
harmed a meaningful remedy, without inviting frivolous
lawsuits. After independent review, if you have been harmed
by your HMO's refusal to provide care, you have a legitimate complaint,
and you should have recourse
in court. (applause) With a strong, independent review
process, most disagreements should not wind up in
court. Our federal legislation must allow the review process
to work, not short-circuit it by inviting unnecessary
lawsuits. With strong independent review, doctors make
medical
decisions; not the lawyers. (Applause.)
The fifth guideline for a patients' bill of
rights ensures that Americans will have access to affordable health
care coverage. I want to sign protections that improve
medical care, not make it impossible for patients to afford it, or
employers to provide coverage. Excess and frivolous
litigation does harm to our health care system. It clogs the
courts and consumes time and money. It undermines the trust
between doctor
and patient. It drives up insurance premiums for everyone.
We've enacted civil justice reforms in Texas
to guard against frivolous litigation and excessive
awards. To make sure health care coverage remains
affordable, I will insist any federal bill have reasonable
caps on damage awards. And the caps in proposed legislation
before Congress are too high, and will drive up the costs of health
care in America. (Applause.)
To encourage employers to continue to provide
health care insurance for their employees, we must protect them from
unnecessary litigation. Some proposals now before Congress fail to
adequately address this problem,
and would even make it worse. Employers who decide up front
they will not make medical decisions should not be required to go to
court all the time to prove they were not involved in those
decisions. And I will not support
a federal law that subjects employers to new multiple lawsuits in 50
different states.
With these principles as our guide, I believe
we can enact a patients'
bill of rights in the Congress this year. This issue has
been debated in Washington time and time again. Over the
years, alliances have been formed, and divisions have
deepened. I hope members of Congress will join me in
advancing this debate beyond the arguments of the past.
Just as doctors no longer treat heart disease
with bed rest, we should
not approach this year's patients' bill of rights stuck in last year's
rut. Just as innovative approaches in medicine spur new
breakthroughs, a new approach in Washington offers the hope that we
will share the credit for success. Americans deserve
comprehensive patient protections; and a new, common-sense approach may
be just what the doctor ordered.
On this issue, the rewards are far greater
than shared political success. The real reward will be
knowing that we have helped put the healing powers of modern medicine
within the reach of all who need them. Each of you holds that
incredible power and upholds a great trust.
I appreciate the important work you
do. You have my gratitude and my respect. And in
the days ahead, I hope my plans for reform will have your
support. Thank you for having me.
God bless. God bless
America. Thank you all. (Applause.)
END 10:44 A.M. EST
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