Max Baucus: “for years, Congress has not been able to answer the question, ``What can be done about rising medical malpractice…”

“for years, Congress has not been able to answer the question, ``What can be done about rising medical malpractice insurance premiums?'' Today, Senator Enzi and I begin a process we hope will end with action by Congress to resolve the problem. The discussions the Senate has had about medical malpractice premiums until now have centered around imposing caps on noneconomic damages. The debate over caps has occurred several times in recent years, and has always ended with a failure to invoke cloture to vote on the legislation. I have consistently opposed caps legislation because caps have been unsuccessful in preventing increases in medical malpractice premiums in my home State of Montana, as well as several other States. Clearly, it is time for a different approach. The problem of rising insurance premiums affects the medical community, the legal community and, most importantly, patients. Doctors, burdened with continually-increasing insurance costs, have chosen to retire early, relocate their practices, or limit the services they provide to avoid high-risk procedures. Lawyers are concerned that reforms limit patients' ability to be compensated for their injuries. While patients find themselves caught in the middle, with ever-decreasing access to medical and legal services. One of the reasons caps do not offer significant hope for improving the situation is that they treat the symptom of increasing premiums but not the underlying disease.”