Judd Gregg: “we now return to the issue of how we make health care more affordable and accessible to the American people. This bill…”

“we now return to the issue of how we make health care more affordable and accessible to the American people. This bill will try to reduce the liability, the insurance costs of doctors who deliver babies and doctors who work in emergency rooms, making the practice of those different disciplines more attractive to doctors and allowing, therefore, especially women who are having children more access to doctors. Especially in rural areas this is a huge problem because so many OB doctors have had to give up the practice of medicine because of the cost of their liability insurance. One such piece of legislation has been reported out of the committee which I have the privilege to chair, which is the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. It was reported out unanimously--unanimously. It is the patient safety bill, and it basically is structured so that it does, for example, make information as to how errors occur within the medical profession more available within the medical profession so people in the medical profession can learn from these errors.”