Shelley Berkley: “I fear we are doing a terrible disservice to our Nation's physicians and the patients who depend on them. We are…”

“I fear we are doing a terrible disservice to our Nation's physicians and the patients who depend on them. We are deceiving them by passing a bill that does not ensure that doctors will actually benefit from these caps. As a representative of southern Nevada I am all too familiar with the medical liability issue. Nevada has faced a serious medical malpractice crisis for years. Doctors cannot afford insurance premiums and they are threatening to leave the State. Some have and some are refusing to accept new patients. In August of 2002, Nevada passed a carefully balanced tort reform bill which limited noneconomic damages to $350,000 and allowed for judicial discretion in particularly egregious cases. Nevada passed caps. But the medical insurance companies have refused and have failed to reduce their premiums. This Congress cannot for a minute pretend that we have addressed the real problem of skyrocketing insurance rates if we limit our prescription to liability caps. We must also provide doctors with insurance reforms as well. Medical liability reform is worthless if we ignore all of the evidence demonstrating that the current crisis is due more to insurance company miscues than liability claims. We must combine them both and I urge you to reject this rule.”