Bush Calls For Med-Mal Reform Bill

By Matt Brady, Washington Bureau

NU Online News Service, April 21, 11:58 a.m. EDT,Washington?President Bush, speaking to an agent brokergathering here today, called on the Senate to pass a bill revisingthe framework for medical injury litigation that would provide anational solution to "junk lawsuits."

His remarks were made in a speech to the National LegislativeConference of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers ofAmerica, which was also addressed by Senate Majority Whip MitchMcConnell, R-Ky., who spoke on the same theme.

The President, whose efforts to change the tort system have beenbuoyed by successful passage of a class action reform bill, saidthat becoming a part of the federal government when he was electedmade him a convert to the notion of a national medical liabilityreform law.

"When I first got to Washington, I thought that medicalliability reform would best be handled at the state level until Irealized what the cost was of the defensive practice of medicine,the cost of settling lawsuits, and the rising costs of premiums doto the federal budget," he said.

"If you think about cost to the federal budget, and the costs offrivolous lawsuits to the federal budget, you'll begin to recognizewhy I think it is now a national problem. We pay for Medicare, wepay for Medicaid, we pay for veterans' health benefits. All ofthose costs are affected by junk lawsuits.

"Medical liability reform is a national problem that requires anational solution and now is the time for the United States Senateto listen to doctors and patients and concerned citizens ? and notthe powerful trial lawyer lobby ? and get me a medical liabilitybill."

Sen. McConnell also laid the bulk of the blame for the lack ofmovement on tort reform at the feet of the trial bar, and on SenateDemocrats.

"We have had an extraordinarily difficult time reaching the60-vote threshold for any type of litigation reform," he said.

With the passage of the class action reform bill, though, henoted that the majority was ready to try again to reform themedical liability system.

"We'll make a run at it again," Sen. McConnell said. He noted,however, that Senate Democrats had successfully killed severalprior measures that took a broad-based approach as well as thosethat were more narrowly focused on obstetrics or emergencyrooms.

"We need Democrats who are willing to stand up to theplaintiffs' bar," he said. "Everything that the plaintiffs' barwants, it is not necessary to give them."

McConnell said he would like to see the tort system itselfchanged to discourage frivolous lawsuits, through the use of a"loser pays" system in which the loser of a lawsuit is required tocover all of its costs, and by placing reasonable caps on attorneysfees.

Federal tort law already caps fees for attorneys suing thegovernment at 25 percent, he said, and "there's been no dearth oflawsuits against the federal government."

President Bush also said that lawmakers "need to take action onasbestos legal reforms."