Jon Kyl: “I regret that, twice this week, the Senate has failed to address the problem of medical liability costs. I support S.…”

“I regret that, twice this week, the Senate has failed to address the problem of medical liability costs. I support S. 22, the Medical Care Access Protection Act of 2006, and S. 23, the Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act. Both of these bills would address the very real problem of access to medical care for people in my State and across the country. We have a crisis in the United States, and in particular in Arizona, when it comes to the availability of providers. The terrible distortions in our medical liability system have been with us for years. In Arizona, we have seen emergency rooms that cannot remain open because there are not enough trauma surgeons and specialists to staff the ER, physicians who have decided to move from my State to States with more supportive medical liability law, and finally, doctors who have opted to retire early. It is troubling to have highly trained, dedicated, qualified members of the medical community leave or to give up their profession--all to the detriment of their patients. This shrinking availability of physicians is due in part to the high insurance premiums that doctors are facing. In just 5 years, the premiums for general surgery in Arizona increased from $37,804 to $56,862--an increase of 50 percent. For obstetricians in Arizona, premiums in 2001 were $49,436 and are now averaging $72,734.…”