[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26552]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. CALVERT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Speaker, last week, the Democrat leadership 
introduced their ever-evolving health care bill, a patchwork of deals 
cut to garner enough votes to secure a political victory.
  In this bill, the trial lawyers win big. My home State of California 
has enacted commonsense trial practice reforms that have lowered 
medical liability costs for our residents. Since the enactment of 
reforms, malpractice rates in California have grown at one-third the 
rate of States without malpractice reforms, a savings which is passed 
on to patients. However, this bill would force States to repeal 
effective liability reforms in favor of unlimited payoffs for trial 
lawyers or States will lose out on Federal funds for their health care 
systems.
  Health care reform must not reward frivolous lawsuits that drive up 
the cost of health care to the detriment of doctors, health care 
professionals and, most importantly, patients. Let's prove that 
Congress is more serious about the health of the American people than 
it is about the financial health of trial lawyers.

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