[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21629]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               TORT REFORM WILL REDUCE HEALTH CARE COSTS

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last week President Obama called for 
the administration to establish demonstration projects to measure the 
effectiveness of tort reform. But we don't need to demonstrate that 
tort reform works; we have already proved that in States where it has 
been enacted.
  In my home State of Texas, for example, health care premiums fell by 
30 percent. That means Texans pay less to have better health care and 
more options. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public 
Health, 40 percent of medical malpractice suits filed in the U.S. are 
without merit, 40 percent.
  A Department of Health and Human Services study found that unlimited 
excessive damages add $70 billion to $126 billion annually to health 
care costs. These costs are then passed along to the patient in the 
price of health care.
  Tort reform will reduce health care costs by tens of billions of 
dollars. We don't need to test tort reform; we need to enact it.

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