Chris Dodd: “There are other things we need to be doing. Information technology in health care would be a major step forward. I have…”

“There are other things we need to be doing. Information technology in health care would be a major step forward. I have supported almost every major tort reform piece of legislation here in the last 10 years. I have done it on securities litigation reform. I did it on class action. I was willing to do it on asbestos and on Y2K legislation. In all of those cases, we worked out compromises to make sure that what we were doing would make sense. This bill makes no sense whatsoever. The facts show that there is no justification for moving in the direction we would be with this piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to reject this proposal and come back with a piece of legislation that really would make a difference. If we really want to reduce these kinds of costs, there are steps that can be taken to allow us to do it. But with this bill, the number of doctors is increasing, the number of OB/GYNs is increasing. States with caps are watching premium costs go up, and States without caps are watching premium costs go down--the exact reverse of what we are claiming we would accomplish with this legislation. The details of my statement make that clear. Again, you are entitled to your opinion but not facts. The fact is, we are going in the wrong direction with this bill. I urge my colleagues to step back, allow for some hearings to go forward, allow for people to sit down and look into things as we did with class action, as we did with Y2K and asbestos litigation.…”