Liability Reform Is Necessary

Floor Speech

Mr. FLEMING. Madam Speaker, as we debate health care reform, little attention has been paid to the impact that our Nation's broken medical liability system has on rising medical costs.

There are 125,000 lawsuits against physicians at any given time; 75 percent of the suits are closed without payment to the plaintiff, and in 83 percent of the cases going to trial, physicians are cleared. This means there is very little correlation between lawsuits and actual malpractice. More than that, the current system pushes doctors to overtest and overtreat to avoid being hauled into the courtroom, costing Americans billions of dollars in taxes and higher premiums. In a few cases in which there is a judgment, much of the money goes to pay lawyers, not the aggrieved patient.

Furthermore, the current system is driving physicians out of needed specialties. Recent studies show that one in seven obstetricians no longer delivers babies, and 49 percent of American counties don't even have an OB, largely because of high malpractice costs.

If the President and Democrats are serious about controlling high health care costs, they must call on trial lawyers to share in the sacrifice and to reform the medical liability system.

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