[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 89 (Tuesday, July 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1220
 
                       MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM

  (Mr. GRAMS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GRAMS. Madam Speaker, health care reform is being held hostage by 
special interests. What a coincidence--the President put a lawyer in 
charge of health care reform and, interestingly, not one of the bills 
reported out of committee addresses the rising costs of frivolous 
lawsuits and defensive medicine.
  This is a gap that I hope to close by introducing this week the 
Medical Malpractice Fairness Act of 1994.
  Patients and consumers desperately need medical malpractice reform. 
Studies indicate that the high cost of liability insurance and the 
increase in defensive medicine cost consumers $15 billion per year. 
Conservative estimates indicate that reform of defensive medicine will 
save consumers at least $500 per hospital stay.
  Madam Speaker, it is time we told the special interests to take a 
hike. No discussion of health care reform can be taken seriously if we 
do not vigorously address the problem of frivolous lawsuits and 
defensive medicine. I strongly urge my colleagues to support the 
Medical Malpractice Fairness Act of 1994.

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