David Thomas: “I join my partner from Wyoming in supporting what is one of most important bills we will have before us; that is…”

“I join my partner from Wyoming in supporting what is one of most important bills we will have before us; that is, medical liability, the opportunity for us to do something about the cost of health care. As I go about town meetings in my State of Wyoming, the topic I hear the most about is the cost of health insurance. Obviously, health insurance costs are driven by the cost of health care; in this case, of course, some directly as a matter of the kinds of payments that have to be made for protection under medical malpractice liability insurance. I am very pleased to join my colleagues to talk a little about an issue that has had a severe impact on health care. It is not the total answer, but it is a step in the right direction. We are finding ourselves in a situation where we have very good health care, excellent health care, which we all want. We all know it is going to be expensive, but we find ourselves in a position where we are almost cutting off access to health care because of the cost. We have 43 million people who do not carry insurance because of the cost. Obviously, we help take care of those people when they have something without the ability to pay, and the insurance goes up for those who do pay. The insurance goes up for the hospitals and the doctors who don't get paid for all their patients. So it is a broad problem but one we can handle.”