[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 68 (Friday, May 14, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E867-E868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HELP EFFICIENT, ACCESSIBLE, LOW-COST, TIMELY HEALTHCARE (HEALTH) ACT OF 
                                  2004

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 12, 2004

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, this bill claims to be a cure for the high 
cost of insurance premiums paid by doctors. But it's really just what 
the insurance companies ordered.
  It's a public policy placebo that doesn't relieve the sting doctors 
are feeling from sky-high insurance premiums. It only offers the 
illusion of relief, while pumping cash into the bottom line of the 
insurance companies.
  Capping damages may save insurance companies money when their 
policyholders are sued, but the bill doesn't require insurers to pass 
along one cent of savings to doctors in the form of lower medical 
liability premiums.

[[Page E868]]

  Last year, when H.R. 5, the so-called ``HEALTH'' Act, was considered 
in the Energy and Commerce Committee, I offered an amendment to ensure 
that any savings from the bill's caps on damages for patient pain and 
suffering would be passed along to doctors in the form of reductions in 
their liability insurance premiums. This would directly protect 
innocent doctors from the impact of rising insurance rates brought 
about by negligence, while increasing the likelihood that consumers 
would see some benefit from caps. The Republican side defeated my 
amendment.
  I asked the Rules Committee to make my amendment in order so that we 
could have a full and open debate on it during Floor consideration, but 
the Republicans refused to make my amendment in order.
  This year, the Republican Majority went one step further--not only 
did Republicans refuse to make my amendment in order, they completed 
bypassed the Committee process altogether, ramming this bill right to 
the House Floor without any hearings and without any opportunity to 
amend it in Committee.
  The amendment I offered last year in Committee established the 
``missing link'' in this bill between liability caps and lower premiums 
for physicians. It would have balanced the competing interests in a way 
that would allow some progress on this issue. But balance does not seem 
to be what the Republican leadership is looking for. Instead, they 
bring forward a bill that no one can amend at all and which blames 
rising premiums on the victims of medical errors by capping their 
damages for pain and suffering, while completely ignoring the effect 
that insurers' own bad business decisions have on the high cost of 
premiums.
  Such a slanted, one-dimensional view of the problem is bad for 
doctors and bad for patients. Without any guarantee that savings from 
the bill's cap on damages will go to doctors--not the insurance 
industry--this bill deserves to be defeated. Someday, we will see a 
majority in this Congress that is willing to go to bat for consumers 
and doctors alike to reduce the soaring cost of providing good 
medicine, instead of handing out ``discount cards'' that are becoming a 
license to raise prices across the board. Sadly, that day has not yet 
arrived.
  I urge my colleagues to reject this harmful bill. Put the interests 
of physicians and patients above insurance company profiteering. Vote 
``No'' on H.R. 4280.

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