Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the bipartisan and very credible Congressional Budget Office has said that this bill will have little or no effect on insurance premiums. It further says that if there is any effect, it will be ``quite small.'' So I do appreciate all the comments that Members are making today, and I agree with a lot of them. But we should not think that any of them pertain to this bill, or that this bill is going to have any kind of a major impact on premiums. However, I would like to discuss one subject that will have a major impact on insurance premiums, and that is health care tort reform. The American medical liability system, quite frankly, is broken. According to one study, 40 percent of claims are meritless; either no injury or no error occurred. Attorneys' fees and administrative costs amount to 54 percent of the compensation paid to plaintiffs. The study found that completely meritless claims account for nearly a quarter of total administrative costs. The American civil litigation system is the most expensive in the world, more than twice as expensive as nearly any other country. Defensive medicine is widely practiced and it is very costly. Skyrocketing medical liability insurance rates have distorted the practice of medicine. Costly but unnecessary tests have become routine as doctors try to protect themselves from lawsuits.…”