Jared Polis: “Some of the groups are the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association, Justice in Aging, Long Term Care…”

“Some of the groups are the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association, Justice in Aging, Long Term Care Community Coalition, National Education Association, National Consumers League, National Disability Rights Network, Public Citizen, Public Justice, and many, many other great organizations. I hope my friend from Colorado is a member of at least two or three of these wonderful organizations. I will furnish the entire list to him. This bill preempts State tort law that has been developed over the last 200 years and is contrary to the 10th Amendment of our Constitution. It imposes an arbitrary cap on the amount of noneconomic damages a victim can collect under a Federal law coopting the ability of States to do their own medical malpractice laws and hamstringing them with regard to the reforms that they can undertake. In fact, capping damages also increases taxpayer spending. According to a joint study by Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, they found that capping economic damages actually increases Medicare part B spending. I would point out another horrible feature of the cruel Republican healthcare bill is that it guts the Medicare trust fund and would lead to Medicare becoming insolvent sooner rather than later by draining the Medicare trust fund of over $100 billion. That is another aspect of this bill. No wonder they didn't want us to see it, Mr. Speaker.…”