Political Quotes

“Right and we were reaching that point in West Virginia. We had our doctors leaving. Another thing, I spent Sunday night with a group of physicians here in Washington, D.C., and one of the things they told me repeatedly, no matter what State they were practicing in, is that more and more they have got to practice defensive medicine. Are you going to do the MRI, Doctor? And even though they do not think it is called for, it is not medically necessary, they go ahead and do it because if they do not do it, there is that small fraction of a chance that something might have shown up or that they could come back and be sued because they did not proceed with a procedure that they did not feel was medically necessary. And what happens when you practice defensive medicine? The cost goes up and up and up. And this was happening in West Virginia. Again, our large medical centers, we could not recruit our doctors. We would have residencies throughout our State and as soon as the physicians were trained, educated, and ready to practice, they would leave the State. And this was really very difficult because the word was out across the Nation: West Virginia, if you want to practice medicine, do not go to West Virginia. So we had all of this coupled with just the out-of-control lawyer compensation that this breeds, this medical liability breeds. So we had this kind of situation in West Virginia and what happened? It was not the doctors. It was not the hospitals.…”