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 broker gathering here today, called on the Senate to pass a bill revising the framework for medical injury litigation that would provide a national solution to "junk lawsuits."

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

The President, whose efforts to change the tort system have been buoyed by successful passage of a class action reform bill, said that becoming a part of the federal government when he was elected made him a convert to the notion of a national medical liability reform law.

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

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

"Medical liability reform is a national problem that requires a national solution and now is the time for the United States Senate to listen to doctors and patients and concerned citizens ? and not the powerful trial lawyer lobby ? and get me a medical liability bill."

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

"We have had an extraordinarily difficult time reaching the 60-vote threshold for any type of litigation reform," he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bush Calls For Med-Mal Reform Bill

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