Political Quotes

“I think my colleague raises a good point. The mere fact that half of the physicians will, half of the surgeons in the country will be sued for medical malpractice has a great deal to do with the malpractice premium problem as well. So it is very difficult to tell how much of the problem is due to the large number of cases that will be filed and have to be defended, regardless of whether they have merit or not--three-fourths of them actually being thrown out--and how many problems, on the other hand, are due to very large awards. Because it is impossible to divide those numbers out, it is impossible to say precisely how much good we will do with this amendment. But this amendment is just one narrow piece of a much larger underlying amendment, as my colleague knows, that is being offered by Senators Lieberman, Kassebaum, and McConnell, that hopefully will also deal with the number of claims that are filed. So we are trying to get at it in three different ways: We are trying to limit the circumstances under which these cases are filed and trying to get them into alternative dispute rather than going all the way through trial, No.…”