Phil Gingrey: “I rise tonight and will take my time to describe the crisis that we face in this country regarding access to health…”

“I rise tonight and will take my time to describe the crisis that we face in this country regarding access to health care; and make no mistake about it, this is truly a crisis. When you have doctors unable to go to emergency rooms to provide emergency care, particularly for patients who have sustained automobile accident and head injuries; when you have OB-GYN physicians, as I am, stopping their programs at the most experienced states of their career because of the fear of litigation, you have patients who are in most need of those skills being the least likely to get them. This crisis also extends to the facts that fewer and fewer of our best and brightest are choosing medicine as a career. The application rates to our medical schools are down significantly over the last several years. What is causing this? We hear from the other side and a lot of things are mentioned, insurance companies, of course, are being blamed for gouging physicians and for gouging the public. But I suggest to you, Madam Speaker, that that clearly is not the case. Let me just give you a few statistics and share with you what has happened in my State, not just my own district, the 11th, but in the entire State of Georgia. MAG Mutual, Medical Association of Georgia Mutual Insurance Company, a doctor-owned insurance provider states that premiums for malpractice insurance are rising at rates of 30 to 40 percent a year.”