American medicine, a culture of lawsuits - says G Bush

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 02 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Speaking before hundreds of medical professionals at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark., on Monday, President Bush was greeted with numerous rounds of applause as he pledged to continue fighting for medical liability reform until a fix is found for the national crisis.

The fix President Bush is seeking is the same as that for which the AMA has been advocating for years: a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages to help ensure a strong, affordable, accessible health care system.

"Lawsuits don't heal patients - that's a fact," Bush said. "And they're driving a wedge between the docs and their patients. One of the most vital links of good medicine is the doctor-patient relationship. Yet many doctors fear what they tell a patient will be used against them in a court of law."

Describing America as possessing "a culture of lawsuits," the President tailored his speech to the patients and physicians of Arkansas, which was named a state "in crisis" by the AMA in March 2003.

He offered statistics from the Arkansas Medical Society that show that more than half of Arkansas physicians surveyed reported they've been forced to reduce or discontinue one or more medical services in the last two years due to rising liability insurance premiums and the threat of being sued.

"Medical liability premiums for Arkansas doctors rose more than 150 percent last year," Bush said. "That makes it awfully hard for doctors to do business. And what is their business? Their business is seeing patients. Their business is helping to make somebody's life better. Yet these lawsuits are making it hard for docs to practice their business in the state of Arkansas, and other states, as well."

Case in point: Sara McBee, MD, a Fayetteville, Ark., family practice physician who went from delivering between 80 and 100 babies a year to none. In July of 2002, President Bush described, Dr. McBee's insurance premiums more than doubled.

"[T]he litigation culture made it nearly impossible for her to practice [what she loves]," he said. "I say nearly impossible, because she wouldn't break her commitments to expecting patients and hung in there for a year. But her premiums continued to rise, and Dr. McBee has stopped delivering babies, as a direct result of too many junk lawsuits. And that's not right. That's not right."

The AMA applauds President Bush for his efforts in support of patients and physicians and hopes his visit to Arkansas will highlight how America's broken liability system is severely jeopardizing patients' access to care.

According to AMA President Donald J. Palmisano, MD, because of the millions paid out in jury awards and verdicts - as well as the high costs to defend frivolous lawsuits - physicians' insurance premiums have skyrocketed in Arkansas and in many other parts of the country.

"America's patients need lawmakers to act now - before the crisis becomes worse."

Dr. Palmisano's comments echoed President Bush's plea for movement in the Senate on S. 11, the Patients First Act of 2003 (Bush was very supportive of H.R. 5, which passed the House of Representatives last March): "The House passed a bill. It's stuck in the Senate. These senators have got to understand no one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit."