Friggin' Democrats...............Bush Backs National Malpractice Caps
By SCOTT LINDLAW
Associated Press Writer
AP/Frank Franklin II [18K]
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HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) — President Bush called Thursday for nationwide ceilings on medical malpractice awards, a step he argued would drive down soaring health care costs and save taxpayers money.
Democrats said the proposal would help the insurance industry, not patients — a biting charge at a time when Bush is trying to distance himself from Corporate America.
Bush, the former Texas governor, has been a fierce guardian of states' rights, and he long fought against federal mandates on the states.
But nationwide caps on malpractice awards are merited, he said, because high health care costs are stifling medical innovation, driving doctors out of the business and pricing patients out of insurance.
The caps Bush called for could save the federal government $30 billion a year, the White House said.
``It's a national problem that requires a national solution,'' Bush said.
Legislation in Congress would limit the pain and suffering portion of malpractice awards to $250,000 and punitive damages to either the same amount or twice the patient's actual financial loss. The bill, intended to supersede state laws, also would curtail lawyers' fees and patients' ability to file suit over old cases.
The administration released a report that found the price of malpractice insurance for certain high-risk specialists increased about 10 percent last year and may rise by 20 percent this year.
High costs for insurance also have caused many doctors to leave certain communities. Bush said liability insurance premiums have increased more than 30 percent this year.
States with limits between $250,000 to $350,000 for pain and suffering awards had average maximum premium increases for internists, general surgeons and obstetricians of between 12 percent and 15 percent last year, compared with an average of 44 percent in states with no caps, it said.
``Our badly broken medical liability system is responsible for higher costs for patients, for lower quality of care, and for decreased access, and I worry about it,'' Bush told about 1,800 people in a speech here.
With a wave of corporate scandals and his own business background threatening to hurt the GOP, Bush has sought in recent weeks to show his compassion for the common man. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer rejected the notion that supporting malpractice caps could create the appearance he is siding with the insurance industry, which could benefit.
``The president sides here with pregnant mothers, patients who want to have access to their doctors,'' Fleischer said.
But Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who made millions trying personal injury lawsuits against big companies before he joined Congress, said the malpractice caps would help the industry.
``It is striking that at a time when Wall Street is in shambles ... the president has chosen to go to North Carolina to help insurance companies instead of the victims of bad medical care,'' said Edwards, a potential presidential contender in 2004.
His conference call was organized by the Democratic National Committee.
Edwards said malpractice premiums are not the problem, and contended lawsuits against doctors are not the most significant factor in rising insurance costs.
He was the plaintiffs' lawyer in 1997 when a North Carolina jury ordered an obstetrician and her employer to pay the parents of a retarded girl $23.2 million — the largest award ever for a medical malpractice case in the state.
The American Medical Association, a doctors' group, praised Bush's call for caps.
``President Bush recognizes the high price patients pay for the liability lottery we have in America right now,'' said AMA president-elect Dr. Donald J. Palmisano, who is also a lawyer. ``In the end, all patients pay the spiraling costs generated by our nation's dysfunctional liability system.''
Bush was also raising $750,000 for Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole on Thursday. By discussing the public-policy issue of medical-malpractice legislation, the White House was able to split the cost of his trip between taxpayers and the GOP. |
