[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 19 (Monday, May 15, 2006)]
[Pages 886-887]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Medical Liability Reform Legislation

May 8, 2006

    I am disappointed that the Senate has yet again failed to pass real 
medical liability reform legislation. Unwilling to take on their trial 
lawyer supporters, the Democrats led

[[Page 887]]

this effort to block these much-needed reforms.
    Junk lawsuits are driving too many good doctors out of medicine. 
Women in nearly 1,500 counties are without a single ob-gyn, and 
frivolous and abusive lawsuits are encouraging the use of defensive 
medicine, which imposes substantial and unnecessary costs on all 
Americans.
    This is a national problem that deserves a national solution. I have 
called on Congress to pass responsible medical liability reforms, and 
the House of Representatives has acted. It is time for the Senate to put 
the needs of the American people ahead of the interests of trial lawyers 
and pass meaningful medical liability reform legislation.