President Bush lauded for support of medical liability reform
2 February 2005
WASHINGTON. The Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Healthcare (CARH)
applauded President George W. Bush's continued call for meaningful medical
liability reform in his State of the Union Address tonight and called upon
the President to aggressively use his office to push the few intransigent
members of the United States Senate who defy the will of the majority by
threatening to filibuster necessary legal reforms.
"President Bush is firm in his position, and we are firm in ours," said
John Thomas, Chairman of CARH and Vice President and General Counsel of
Baylor Health Care. "He was absolutely right in suggesting that one way to
make health care more affordable and more accessible is to pass medical
liability reform. And toward this end, CARH pledges its continued resources
and support."
The U.S. House of Representatives passed reform legislation last year,
but failure to gain cloture on repeated attempts in the Senate blocked its
passage, providing the personal injury lawyers lobby a major victory in the
108th Congress.
"The President made it clear that he and the new Congress have a clear
directive from Americans: put an end to runaway jury awards and frivolous
lawsuits which force hospitals, doctors, and nursing homes to abandon their
practices and patients," said Thomas. "Voters want healthcare access. They
want it affordable. And the reforms we support -- the reforms the President
is calling for -- are estimated to reduce the cost to Medicare by as much as
$50 billion per year and to private payers by more than $100 billion per
year."
Medical malpractice awards have tripled since 1994, driving medical
liability insurance premiums up over 500 percent and forcing hospitals and
healthcare providers nationwide to close their doors. As a result,
increasing numbers of American's are losing access to healthcare due to the
shortage of physicians, especially in higher-risk specialties such as
obstetrics.
"It's time for obstructionist senators to listen to their constituents
and get behind the President by passing liability reforms like those that
have proven successful in Texas, where in one year, hospitals report a 17
percent drop in liability costs," Thomas said. "These reforms will make fair
and reasonable compensation available in the case of malpractice, without
reducing the much needed access to health care services for our seniors,
pregnant mothers, and trauma victims."
The full State of the Union address:
www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2005/index.html
The Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Health Care (CARH) is an
organization of hospitals, long term care providers, businesses, health care
professionals and concerned citizens dedicated to working with the
Administration, Congress and the media to educate the public about the
escalating medical liability insurance crisis and to see national
legislation enacted that would result in comprehensive reform. For more
information on CARH please visit
http://www.carh.net/ |