Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: “somebody in this Chamber needs to stand up for the doctors and somebody needs to stand up for the hospitals. Malpractice…”

“somebody in this Chamber needs to stand up for the doctors and somebody needs to stand up for the hospitals. Malpractice premiums are choking America's physicians, and H.R. 5 is nothing but a sham because H.R. 5 does not mention one time, from front to back, soup to nuts, does not ever even mention malpractice premiums. We need to do something about those premiums for the doctors. We need to do it now. We need to do it today. H.R. 5 will not do it. And how about frivolous lawsuits? Frivolous lawsuits need to be ended. If a suit is filed with no basis in law or in fact, it should be dismissed at the cost of the plaintiff and the plaintiff should be sanctioned. But what does H.R. 5 says about frivolous lawsuits? It does not say one thing. That is a shame. That is outrageous. We are only talking about benefits for insurance companies. We are talking about caps. The only people protected are insurance carriers. The only people celebrating today are executives in tall buildings owned by insurance companies. This is not good for doctors, it is not good for hospitals, it is not good for patients. Let us stand up for them. Let us do the right thing.”