[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 29, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8215-S8216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HEALTH CARE WEEK VIII, DAY III

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, throughout the debate on health care 
reform, the administration has made a point of asking various 
stakeholders to come together and do their part: Doctors and hospitals 
are being asked to find significant savings, seniors are being asked to 
make major sacrifices, and so are the States. Every week, it seems, the 
White House hosts an event aimed at showcasing some sacrifice being 
made by one group or another--every group, that is, except personal 
injury lawyers.
  It is a glaring omission, since everyone knows that the constant 
threat of lawsuits is one of the reasons health care premiums for 
families have skyrocketed more than 100 percent over the past decade 
and the primary reason many doctors today spend a literal fortune on 
malpractice insurance even before they open their doors for business. 
To take just one example, neurosurgeons in Miami can expect to spend 
more on malpractice insurance every single year than many families in 
Miami can expect to spend on a new home.
  This is a very serious problem, and everyone knows it. Yet we do not 
hear a word about it--not a word--from any of the Democratic-led 
committees in Congress that are working on reform. It is not because 
the administration has not raised the issue. Last month, the President 
himself acknowledged the widespread use of so-called defensive medicine 
or the practice of prescribing drugs or tests that are not really 
needed just to protect oneself from the threat of a lawsuit. During the 
same speech, the President said we need to explore a whole range of 
ideas about how to scale back defensive medicine. Well, Democrats in 
Congress must not have been paying much attention to that part of the 
speech because I have not heard a single word on this issue from any 
Democrat since--not one. One exception was the recent suggestion by 
some in the administration that doctors are performing unnecessary 
surgeries just to make an extra buck. I think a better explanation is 
the one the President gave last month when he said doctors often

[[Page S8216]]

perform certain procedures just to protect themselves from frivolous 
lawsuits.
  The costs associated with ever-increasing malpractice insurance and 
defensive medicine are indeed substantial, and both are simply, of 
course, passed along to consumers in the form of higher costs for even 
basic treatments and procedures. Many Americans pay an even higher 
price when doctors decide the threat of lawsuits and the cost of 
insurance just is not worth it and decide to close down their practices 
altogether. Every State feels the effect of out-of-control malpractice 
suits. One study suggests that Kentucky alone is 2,300 doctors short of 
the national average--a shortage that could be reduced, in part, by 
getting a handle on malpractice suits.
  I have spoken before about the effects a culture of jackpot lawsuits 
has on everyday Americans, on people such as Rashelle Perryman of 
Crittenden County, KY. According to an article in the Louisville 
Courier Journal, Rashelle's first two babies were born at Crittenden 
County Hospital, which is about a 10-minute ride from her home. But her 
third child had to be delivered about 40 miles away. Why? Well, the 
rising malpractice rates had forced doctors at Crittenden County 
Hospital to stop delivering babies altogether. They just could not 
afford the malpractice insurance.

  When the threat of lawsuits drives insurance premiums so high that 
many doctors are forced to go out of business, that mothers across the 
country cannot find a local obstetrician, and that health insurance 
costs for everyone continue to go up, we have a problem that needs to 
be addressed. Yet every single one of the so-called comprehensive 
health care reform proposals Democrats are currently putting together 
in Congress completely and totally ignores this issue.
  The only people who benefit from the current system are the personal 
injury lawyers who can end up taking up to a third of every settlement 
and, frankly, if it is appealed, an even greater percentage, and 
protecting them is not what health care reform was supposed to be 
about. Yet it is hard to escape the conclusion that this is precisely 
what is going on here. If the administration wants to be comprehensive 
in its approach, it should ask the personal injury lawyers to make a 
sacrifice, just as they have asked America's seniors, doctors, 
Governors, and small business owners to make a sacrifice.
  Americans do not want a government takeover of health care. They want 
reforms that everyone can understand and that all of us can agree on. 
And nothing could be simpler or more straightforward than putting an 
end to the junk lawsuits that drive up costs and put doctors out of 
business. Americans do not want grand schemes, they want commonsense 
proposals. Medical liability reform would be a very good place to 
start.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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