Orrin Hatch: “there is a subtle implication in this whole debate on the McConnell amendment--an amendment which I strongly…”

“there is a subtle implication in this whole debate on the McConnell amendment--an amendment which I strongly support--that somehow health care providers are a bunch of greedy so and so's, motivated solely by dreams of maximizing profit. If they ask for relief from liability, it must be because they want to escape responsibility, to make a quick buck, not because it would make our health care delivery system better. What is ironic is that this body has spent countless hours over the past 2 years debating proposals on health care reform, all of which were based on a system which places the utmost trust in the health care professional, whether it be a doctor, a nurse, a chiropractor, or a lab technician. In fact, we spent countless hours here in this very Chamber, debating how to improve our health care delivery system. We spent 54 days in the Labor and Human Resources Committee--46 days in hearings and 8 days in markup--and 40 days in the Finance Committee--36 days in hearings, and 4 days in markup. And that does not even count the countless hours of work outside the committee and on the floor. There was no disagreement over the need for medical liability reform. Indeed, the Clinton proposal, the Labor Committee bill, the Finance Committee bill, the ensuing Mitchell bill--all contained medical liability provisions, as I will discuss later. The only question was over what those proposals should be. When we get sick, who do we see?…”