Bush Renews Push for Medical-Malpractice Caps
Associated Press
January 17, 2003

President Bush said Thursday his proposed nationwide ceilings on medical malpractice awards would drive down health care costs, but critics said he was siding with mismanaged insurance companies that pass inflated costs to patients.

Bush dusted off a proposal he made in July to cap the pain and suffering portions of malpractice awards at $250,000.

Without the limit, Bush said, "excessive jury awards will continue to drive up insurance costs, will put good doctors out of business or run them out of your community and will hurt communities like Scranton, Pa. That's a fact."

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"The truth is the insurance industry has done poorly in the market and is simply passing those costs on to doctors and patients," [Senator John] Edwards said. "Evidence from 30 years shows that the things President Bush is proposing will do nothing to reduce the premiums that doctors pay."

Edwards called for stopping frivolous lawsuits and cracking down on the small percentage of doctors responsible for the majority of malpractice cases.

Americans for Insurance Reform, a coalition of 100 consumer and public-interest groups, said the solution to rising health care costs is in changing the business practices of the insurance industry.

"Pennsylvania's insurance crisis has not been caused by the legal system or jury verdicts," the group said, citing a new study it conducted. "Rather, it is a self-inflicted phenomenon caused by the mismanaged underwriting practices of the insurance industry."

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