James M. Talent: “President Bush actually has a plan to lower health insurance premiums. It is a pretty good plan. It is my plan. He kind…”

“President Bush actually has a plan to lower health insurance premiums. It is a pretty good plan. It is my plan. He kind of got it from me and Senator Snowe and Senator Bond and a couple of us over here, those of us who have worked on this since 1997 when I was in the House. I don't like people saying my plan is not a plan. President Bush wants two things. He wants medical liability reform-- reform of frivolous lawsuits in medicine. In Missouri, they know about this because we are losing doctors because malpractice insurance premiums are going up due to a problem with frivolous lawsuits. The Senator from Texas told me they just passed a bill to reform that and their health insurance premiums are going down substantially, and I know this is happening all over the country. If you cut that risk of the frivolous lawsuits, where people are recovering many more times the value of actual injuries, insurance premiums will go down. President Bush wants that. We didn't get that here because it was filibustered. His opponent in the election supported the filibuster. How can you say he doesn't have a plan? You can say you disagree with the plan if you want--you filibustered it. The plan I have that the President supports is called the association health plan. Most of the people who do not have health insurance in the country are working people. They work for small businesses or are farmers.”