[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 9, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             LIMITING NONECONOMIC MEDICAL LIABILITY DAMAGES

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, this Saturday voters in my district will go 
to the polls and vote on an amendment to the Texas State Constitution 
to limit noneconomic damages in medical liability lawsuits.
  Here in the House of Representatives, we passed H.R. 5 in the hopes 
of accomplishing the same goal last March, but the other body so far 
has failed to act. Texas voters will most likely approve this 
Constitutional amendment. I will be among the group voting in favor of 
this amendment.
  So is a national solution still necessary? The answer is a very firm 
yes.
  Mr. Speaker, this summer I was in Nome, Alaska, and I talked to the 
doctors of the hospital there. They are unable to have an 
anesthesiologist on their medical staff because they cannot afford the 
liability insurance policy for an anesthesiologist. This means that the 
doctors in that hospital who practice obstetrics must send their 
patients to Anchorage, Alaska, for C-sections. Mr. Speaker, that is a 
90-minute plane ride, and I am given to understand the weather in Nome, 
Alaska, is occasionally disagreeable.
  At Columbia University, the head of the residency program told me she 
had far fewer candidates for OB-GYN residencies than in years past, 
largely because of the liability crisis throughout the country. In 
fact, the head of that program went on to say they are now making 
candidates that they would not have even considered for an interview 5 
years ago.
  While some States may have had the foresight and found a solution to 
the crisis, this remains a national problem requiring a national 
solution. The House has acted. The other body has not. Mr. Speaker, how 
can they do that.

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