[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  EMBEDDED COSTS OF MEDICAL LIABILITY

  (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, we have heard several times about how the 
embedded costs of the medical justice system, medical liability, 
negatively impact the medical system in this country. In fact, I think 
on Fox News over the weekend they had a rather dramatic piece on how 
the cost of soaring premiums has driven some doctors out of practice.
  But make no mistake about it. While it may affect the doctors' 
livelihood, it ultimately affects access for patients. In my district, 
that has meant perinatologists, specialists who deal in high-risk 
obstetrics, who have closed their shops; neurosurgeons who have left 
town; trauma centers that have been put at risk.
  Traveling to Nome, Alaska last summer, I was told by a group of 
doctors there that they could not afford the liability premiums for an 
anesthesiologist in the town of Nome, Alaska. When their obstetricians 
have a complicated pregnancy, they have to put that woman on a plane 
and send her to Anchorage. I fail to see how that furthers patient 
safety.
  A director of a residency program told me that currently they are now 
accepting people they would not have interviewed for their obstetrics 
and gynecology program 5 years ago because young men and women do not 
want to go into obstetrics and gynecology.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a President who will sign a medical liability 
bill. We have a candidate who has either voted ``no'' or been absent 
when that bill has come to the Senate.

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