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Insurers Cheer Bush Med-Mal Goals

By Steven Brostoff

Washington

President Bushs continuing emphasis on medical liability reform in his State of the Union Address last week is drawing rave reviews from industry groups.

“We knew going into the speech that President Bush was committed to litigation reform within the health care system, and we are pleased he has made this a top 2003 goal of his administration,” said Anne Sittmann, a representative of the National Association of Independent Insurers, Des Plaines, Ill.

“We certainly hope the Congress will follow through with action early this year,” Ms. Sittmann said.

Rodger S. Lawson, president of the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers, said that medical liability reform is necessary to avert a growing health care crisis fed by the burgeoning number and size of malpractice claims.

“Reforming this broken system will improve patient access to health care providers by helping to bring costs under control,” he said.

In his State of the Union message, President Bush said that high quality, affordable health of all Americans is one of his administrations top goals.

Essential to the effort, the president said, is liability reform.

“Because of excessive litigation, everybody pays more for health care, and many parts of America are losing fine doctors,” President Bush said.

“No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit,” he said.

Beyond liability reform, President Bush also called for expanding coverage through private insurance.

Noting that for many people health insurance costs too much, he said that the problem will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care.

Rather, he said, the nation must work towards a system in which all Americans have a good insurance policy and choose their own doctors.

“Instead of bureaucrats and trial lawyers and HMOs, we must put doctors and nurses and patients back in charge of American medicine,” he said.

Donald Young, president of the Washington-based Health Insurance Association of America, said that President Bush laid out a clear vision for making health care more available and affordable.

“We appreciate his dedication to lead in this critical endeavor and we encourage him to use the energy of the free market to drive these changes whenever feasible,” Mr. Young said.

But Ron Pollack, executive director of Washington-based Families USA, blasted the speech, saying “The Presidents laudable rhetoric about health care coverage for everyone is unmatched by his lackluster efforts.”

In the past two years, Mr. Pollack said, the president has proposed tax credits for low wage individuals and families that would do little to make health coverage affordable.

“His proposal is like throwing a 10-foot rope to a person in a 40-foot hole,” he said. “It simply provides no relief.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, February 3, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.