Tom Price: “20 States including my home State of Georgia are experiencing a medical liability crisis. Hospitals are shutting their…”

“20 States including my home State of Georgia are experiencing a medical liability crisis. Hospitals are shutting their doors, doctors are leaving the profession, and patients are the ones left out in the cold. OB-GYN doctors and some surgeons are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums. One-third of the OB doctors in my State no longer deliver babies because delivering a baby is defined as a ``high-risk procedure.'' Other specialists no longer cover emergency procedures. One tragic story I am reminded of is a man who came to the emergency room after a fall with a subdural hematoma, or ``bleeding on the brain.'' What is required to treat this is a relatively simple procedure performed by a neurosurgeon to relieve pressure on the brain. Instead of being saved, he died; and he died because there were no neurosurgeons at the hospital due to frivolous lawsuits and skyrocketing insurance rates. Mr. Speaker, court rooms are interfering with our operating rooms and are threatening health care quality and raising the cost of health care for all Americans. The HEALTH Act puts patients first and will protect our health care system for us and for our children and for our grandchildren. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5. Vote for the HEALTH Act. ____________________”