Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
On Medical Malpractice Legislation
May 8, 2006

I find it unfortunate that we do not hear any discussion by proponents of this legislation about what is best for patients injured or killed by medical errors.  The debate in favor of malpractice award caps has been cast in terms of patient accessibility to health care, but what about patient safety?  Capping non-economic damages may benefit insurance companies, but it does nothing for victims and nothing to address the serious problem of preventable medical errors.   

Despite all of the rhetoric and all the myths and misinformation about the so-called crisis facing our medical professionals, what about the fact that medical errors kill up to 100,000 people each year?  How does capping what a victim can recover help address this tragic fact?  Rather than having all the talk be about alleged physician shortages and phantom reductions in insurance rates, we should be looking at how to improve the quality of care patients receive and how to improve patient safety.  This legislation does nothing to provide any incentive for health care providers to improve the safety of their services, drug companies to rigorously test their products, or nursing homes to provide responsible and compassionate care to our elderly citizens.

As insurance rates, like gas prices, continue to soar to the benefit of corporate profits, as the number of uninsured continue to rise during this presidency, the Republican-controlled Senate seeks to take up partisan legislation that will help a few very powerful insurance companies become even more powerful.  Rather than take up legislation to apply competitive antitrust principles to the business of insurance,  the Majority Leader insists that we limit our actions to legislative proposals that will deprive citizens injured by medical errors a full measure of justice.  Instead of taking up legislation to push the frontiers of life-saving medicine through stem cell research, we are going to debate whether we should make it easier for insurance companies to continue their predatory behavior at the expense of both doctors and patients. 

In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to urge sensible and humane immigration reform and the public clearly wants Congress to address these issues and to strengthen our borders, and instead we are discussing how to dismantle our internal borders and tread on state sovereignty by nullifying state tort law.  A war rages in Iraq in which our Nation’s best and bravest are making the ultimate sacrifice to advance democracy, and meanwhile we are talking about how to curtail Americans’ access to justice.  Forty-five million people do not have health insurance in this country, and yet we are considering legislation that will make it harder for children who suffer lifelong injuries from medical errors to get the long term care they need.  The gap between the richest Americans and everyone else continues to widen, but instead of taking up legislation to raise the minimum wage, the Majority Leader wants to shield lucrative insurance companies from having to pay fair awards to medical malpractice victims.  Where in the Majority Leader’s schedule are the American people’s real priorities? 

There are ways to improve health care.  These bills do not do that. There are alternatives that address the high costs of medical malpractice insurance and patient safety, but they differ from the narrow approach we debate today.  There are solutions to both the current high rate of medical errors, as well as high insurance costs, that will not further victimize patients or intrude into the sovereignty of state legislatures and citizens, but they are not brought before the Senate for consideration and action. 

Some of us have proposed legislation to tackle the problem of rising insurance costs without taking away American citizens’ access to justice.  If we want to reign in the costs of insurance for health care providers, we must address the conditions within the insurance industry.  I have proposed a bill along with Senator Kennedy to exempt medical malpractice insurers from the counterproductive McCarran-Ferguson Act.  This bill would give regulators the tools necessary to prevent anticompetitive business practices that hurt doctors and patients.  If medical malpractice insurers are artificially driving up the costs of insurance, we should stop it.  Health care in our country is too important to allow profits at the expense of patients. 

I urge other Senators to join me in rejecting legislation that will do nothing more than benefit profitable insurance companies under the guise of improving patient accessibility.  Let us work together in a bipartisan fashion to come up with real solutions to the problem of preventable medical errors.  Let us find ways to end the abusive practices in assisted living facilities and nursing homes.  Let us find ways to lower insurance costs without hurting victims.  Those in need of care must be able to trust their doctors and health care providers without doubt.  Elderly Americans deserve the best care that can be provided. Our doctors and other health care providers deserve to be treated fairly in the marketplace when purchasing malpractice insurance.  If we work together, we can make progress and make a difference.  

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