Political Quotes

“this past December in West Virginia, doctors at four hospitals went on a 30-day strike to protest climbing malpractice insurance rates. Following, in January 2003, Pennsylvania narrowly averted a strike only after a last-minute deal was made between the doctors and then governor-elect Ed Rendell. Similar occurrences in other states have made me shudder about the possibilities of similar events occurring in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and their affiliates serve as Ohio's premier medical facilities and I recognize the value that professionals working at those institutions provide to the Greater Cleveland community. Recent editorials in newspapers across the country have highlighted the frustrations experienced by medical professionals. These serve as a sounding call to Congress to readdress tort reform and medical malpractice. Although I am greatly concerned about the rising costs of insurance premiums, especially for certain high-risk medical procedures, and the subsequent decline in the availability of health care that results from doctors retiring or moving their practices, I am not convinced that tort reform is the panacea to the spiraling increase in medical malpractice premiums. Studies and anecdotal evidence clearly show an absence of correlation. In 1995, Texas passed a series of tort law restrictions that advocates claimed would lower the cost of insurance in Texas by $864 million a year.…”