Jim Sensenbrenner: “I yield myself 2 minutes. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) thunders away about the Republican solution to…”

“I yield myself 2 minutes. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) thunders away about the Republican solution to the problem of escalating medical liability insurance premiums. He is entitled to his opinion. But the Democrats have no solution at all. They would like to continue the present system. They would like to see these rates skyrocket. They would like to see physicians close their practices or go into other specialties. They would like to see OB-GYNs be priced out of the market. They would like to see clinics in rural areas closed, and they would like to see the affordability and the accessibility of health care to poor people shrink. I figured out how much the patient ends up having to pay. In the State of Mississippi, an OB-GYN can be charged as much as $110,000 a year this year for professional liability insurance, based upon 2,000 billable hours per year. Based upon 2,000 billable hours per year, a half an hour visit to that OB-GYN, the first $27.50 of whatever that doctor charges the patient goes for that patient's share of the doctor's professional liability insurance premium, and everything else that the doctor charges ends up being used to pay the doctor's other expenses as well as to allow the doctor to take some money home to support himself or herself and their families.”