[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 28 (Monday, July 14, 2003)]
[Page 897]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Senate's Failure To Pass Medical Liability Reform 
Legislation

July 9, 2003

    I am disappointed that the Senate has failed to pass medical 
liability reform legislation. The Nation's medical liability system is 
badly broken, and access to quality health care for Americans is 
endangered by frivolous and abusive lawsuits.
    The medical liability crisis is driving good doctors out of medicine 
and leaving patients in many communities without access to both basic 
and specialty medical services. The American people want and deserve 
access to doctors in their own communities, yet the number of physicians 
has decreased in States without reasonable litigation reforms. The 
liability crisis, particularly the use of defensive medicine, also 
imposes substantial costs on the Federal Government and all Americans.
    This is a national problem that deserves a national solution. The 
House of Representatives has already acted. For the sake of all 
Americans, it is time for the Senate to pass meaningful medical reform 
liability legislation and get it to my desk.