Bush prods Congress on medical liability limits

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President George W. Bush on Tuesday renewed his call for Congress to curb medical malpractice lawsuits and signed an executive order aimed at providing Americans more information about the cost and quality of health care services.

Senate Democrats in May blocked legislation that would cap damages for pain and suffering in medical liability lawsuits, arguing that a drive for corporate profits rather than lawsuits was behind the rise in health care premiums.

“These trial lawyers need to back off,” Bush told a health care forum before attending a fund-raiser for Minnesota Republican candidates for Congress. “A lot of OB/GYNs are leaving the practice because they’re getting sued out of existence.”

Bush campaigned for the presidency on an agenda that included capping malpractice damages, arguing that they were driving up the cost of health care. However, with three months before the November elections where control of Congress is up for grabs, the chances of legislation becoming law are slim.

“These politicians in the United States Senate, people like (Minnesota Sen. Norm) Coleman, needs to step up, and he will and he has,” Bush said. Coleman indicated support for the legislation in May.

Legislation with a $250,000 cap has passed the House of Representatives repeatedly but has been blocked in the Senate.

Most Democrats and a few Republicans oppose the caps, at least at the federal level, and many states already have imposed lawsuit limits as well as insurance market reforms. Opponents of caps say they will protect insurers profits, not necessarily doctors or patients who have been harmed.

Bush also signed an executive order requiring federal agencies that run health care programs to share information with employees on the prices for medical procedures and the quality of care.

“I think the new trend in medicine is going to include transparency in prices as well as transparency in quality,” Bush said.

The additional information will likely spur competition by doctors and hospitals to serve consumers, Bush said, and pointed to laser corrective eye surgery as an example where price has decreased as advertising and competition emerged for the service.

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