Congress is now in the "home stretch," and in only a few weeks the 106th Congress will be history.

We have many challenges to face. But among the most important is the need to make sure that Americans have quality health care that is easy to access. I am hopeful that Congress can agree on a comprehensive plan to send to President Clinton for him to sign into law before we adjourn next month. Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, is said to be cautiously optimistic that Congress can produce a bill to send to President Clinton. Yes, this is an election year. But I still hope the leaders of good will from both political parties in Congress and the White House can get together on this essential issue.

Last year, the House passed the Bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act of 1999. Although I don't agree with everything in the bill, I voted for it in order to move the process along. After the bill was passed, a House-Senate Conference Committee met to begin ironing out the differences between the bill approved by the House and the Senate version. But nearly a year has passed, and it is time for us to complete our work and send to the President a bill that will meet the needs of the American people.

Here are a few general principles that should be taken into account as we develop - and hopefully pass into law - a comprehensive health care bill.

• Citizens should be given access to a broad range of quality health care plans. But unnecessary lawsuits and court battles will NOT help guarantee Americans the quality care they need and deserve. We need to help protect patients with new legislation that gives them resource but encourages settlement, not litigation.
• Health plans and Health Maintenance Organizations should be accountable for their decisions. If a health plan denies treatment and that decision results in serious injury or death, the plan SHOULD have to answer for the decision and SHOULD be open to lawsuits. But businesses that simply provide health coverage to their employees and that are not involved in decisions about whether to allow or deny coverage, should not be subject to suits about those decisions. The point is simple: you shouldn't be blamed for something you didn't do. But if you are making health care decisions, you must be able to defend your decisions in court if serious injury is caused.
• Patients denied coverage by a health plan should have the right to appeal. An impartial board would review the case and have 21 days to act in non-emergency situations; 48 hours in emergencies.
• Health care should be accessible. Health plans should be required to cover care given in recognized, quality clinical trial situations and also to provide needed gynecological, pediatric or obstetrical care.

Much of the 106th Congress has been dominated by the need to make sure that health plans provide Americans with reliable, accessible and quality care while holding Managed Care Organizations and Health Maintenance Organizations responsible for the decisions they make. Protecting patients is our goal. In the closing weeks of this Congress, I will do my best to make sure that this issue is resolved by this Congress.