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Posted on 07/09/2003 11:21:30 AM PDT by Brian S
Wed July 9, 2003 12:10 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Wednesday killed a proposal to limit pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, an idea strongly backed by many U.S. physicians who say high malpractice insurance costs are driving them out of business.
Democrats used a procedural vote to kill the bill, championed by President Bush and approved by the House earlier this year. The Democrats said arbitrary $250,000 caps on pain and suffering might help insurers and drug makers but would not necessarily do much to help doctors or patients.
The bill would not have limited awards for economic damages, such as lost wages or medical costs. However, it would have put a $250,000 cap on awards for pain and suffering and also would have curtailed punitive damages.
Although Senate Republican leaders put the bill aside for now, it is possible that lawmakers will try to work out a compromise or alternative solution in the coming months.
However, some champions of the defeated bill said they would take it to the voters. Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum told reporters this week that Republicans pressed ahead with the vote knowing they would lose "so we can turn the heat up back home on senators who are not being responsive to the problems in their own states."
Both the House and Senate have voted on similar legislation over the years but the issue has taken on more political potency in recent months amid unusual protests and work stoppages by doctors in several states.
The influential American Medical Association has made the bill it a top priority.
Backers of the legislation say big jury awards and frivolous lawsuits are causing such steep increases in malpractice premiums that some doctors, particularly in high risk specialties like obstetrics and emergency medicine, are literally shutting their practices.
"This is about access to care," said Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign, a lead sponsor of the bill.
The Dims will someday pay a price for their wanton shyster-whoring. This WILL be made issue of.
I hope they like the money they'll recieve...they're selling their seats, a little at a time.
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| We're On A Mission From God |
| Help us make our 3rd quarter fundraising goal in record time! |
Everyday people are saved from illnesses that would have killed them just a few years ago. Mistakes occur but far less in medicine than most aspects of life. Keep believing it is all about doctors income and someday the quality of physicians who are willing to put up with this will be significantly less than it is now. Check the number of foreign med grads filling residency slots if you think I am making that up. Who wants to go to school for 25 years (from kindergarten) in a row and be insulted constantly.
BTW, physician incomes have been flat or down for years. I just agreed to a 4% cut today.
It isn't just the medical industry that is being harmed by scumbag lawyers. ALL personal injury lawyers run up the cost of all consumer products with their frivilous lawsuits, which amount to little more than legalized extortion. My auto insurance company says that its rates could be cut by 35% if our state had no-fault insurance whereby I insure me and you insure yourself.
The doctors and the insurance companies are not hurting either. It is you and me that gets the shaft. The reason the rates are skyrocketing is bad investments on the insurance companies part. They blew it by moving into bad equities in the late 90's. You and I are going to pay for it coming and going.
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