Political Quotes

“I rise in support of proceeding to the consideration of S. 11, the Patients First Act. The issue of medical liability reform has been studied extensively, and clearly Federal policymakers have an obligation to address the explosion in litigation across the country and jackpot-sized awards that are having a severe impact on doctors, hospitals and patients' access to care. This is a national crisis that requires a Federal solution. The crisis is not confined within State lines, as patients are losing access to physicians within their State and are having to cross State lines merely to get access to care. Similarly, physicians are being forced to leave their practices due to high insurance rates, and relocate to a State that has enacted some type of reasonable reform that has remained on its books through judicial review. In Pennsylvania and many other States, health care providers are facing enormous increases in their medical liability insurance premiums or are unable to obtain coverage at all due to a significant rise in scarce resources being drained from our health care system because of sporadic and sometimes frivolous health care litigation. As a result, real patients are being denied access to care and losing their family doctors because of exorbitant medical liability costs.”