Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “H.R. 5 is the Republican's quick fix to the health care crisis across the nation. They address the problem of increased…”

“H.R. 5 is the Republican's quick fix to the health care crisis across the nation. They address the problem of increased insurance cost for medical malpractice, but have proposed a contorted theory for fixing it. An in-depth look at H.R. 5 shows that it does absolutely nothing to implement ways to decrease insurance premium costs, and furthermore, it does initiate means to increase the availability of medical malpractice insurance. For the foregoing reasons, I voted ``no'' on this passage. H.R. 5 will limit the amount of non-economic damages that a patient can recover in a malpractice suit and it sets a bar for punitive damage recovery that is nearly impossible to reach. Overall, this bill limits the amount of recovery for all patients by providing a one-size-fits-all solution. How can we limit what a jury can award to an individual who has lost her/his right to reproduce because of a doctor's or medical manufacturer's negligence? How can we limit damage awards to an individual who has been paralyzed as a result of their negligence? How can we set a standard that is so difficult to meet that it will reduce the opportunity that plaintiffs will have to punish these defendants for their malicious acts? H.R. 5 is moving away from fixing the crisis in our health care industry and leaning towards making it worse by essentially punishing the victims. Mr. Speaker, we need a bill that acts fast to help doctors and the medical industry sustain themselves financially.”