[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H1441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM

  (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5, the 
bill that we're bringing to the floor today to repeal the Independent 
Payment Advisory Board, this group of 15 unelected bureaucrats here in 
Washington, D.C., that, under the President's health care law, would be 
able to ration care for our Nation's seniors.
  I think most hardworking American families out there would much 
rather the decisions on health care to be made between a patient and a 
doctor, not some unelected bureaucrats to be allowed to ration our 
grandmother's care. So that's why we're repealing this law. Hopefully, 
it's going to be sent over to the Senate, and we'll finally be able to 
get some good bipartisan support over there.
  As part of this reform, we are also not just repealing, we're 
replacing with real commonsense medical liability reform. This is 
something that should have been in the President's law, but of course 
his law wasn't about reform; it was about a government takeover. We are 
actually putting in place legislation that would put commonsense 
medical liability reform in place.
  According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 40 percent of 
medical malpractice suits filed in the United States are ``without 
merit.'' Well, what does that do? That dramatically increases the cost 
of health care because so many doctors out there will tell you that 
many of the tests they run on us are not because of our health, to look 
at health outcomes; it's to avoid frivolous lawsuits. We finally 
addressed that, lowering the costs and improving quality of care.

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