For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
July 19, 2004
Vice President's Remarks at the Medical College of Ohio
Dana Conference Center, Medical College of Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
5:06 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. (Applause.) Good afternoon.
(Applause.) Well, thank you very much. Nice Ohio welcome -- thank
you, Doctor. I appreciate that introduction. It's great to be in
Toledo and have an opportunity to be back in Ohio. We've been here a
lot lately, and plan to be here a lot more. (Applause.)
President Bush has his opponent in this campaign, and now I have
mine. (Laughter.) I called Senator Edwards to welcome him to the race
the other day, and we had a fine conversation, very friendly. Somebody
said to me, of course, that Senator Edwards got picked for his good
looks and charm. And I said, "How do you think I got this job?"
(Laughter and applause.)
It's good to be on the Medical College of Ohio, I guess, in the
40th anniversary year. It's a privilege to bring greetings to each and
every one of you from our President, George W. Bush. (Applause.)
The President and I are grateful for our supporters all across
Ohio. We're working hard in Ohio. I think the signs are good. And
come November, with your help, I'm confident that Ohio is going to be
part of a nationwide victory for the Bush-Cheney ticket. (Applause.)
We're looking forward to a spirited contest this fall. And when
you talk to your friends and neighbors about the campaign, ask them to
think about all that has happened since George W. Bush was elected
President of the United States. These last three-and-a-half years have
brought some serious challenges to our country. And we're meeting
those, every one of them, with strength and resolve. Today, the
American people can be confident of a brighter future; of a stronger
economy; and a nation that is more secure, because of the character and
the leadership of our President, George W. Bush. (Applause.)
The President has taken decisive leadership to defend the American
people against the dangers of this new era. In the 34 months since our
nation was attacked, America has led a global campaign, hunting down
the terrorists where they plot and plan, so that we do not face them
with armies of firefighters, police, and medical personnel on the
streets of our own cities. (Applause.) In Afghanistan, we removed the
brutal Taliban from power and destroyed the camps where terrorists
trained to kill Americans. In Iraq, America and our allies rid the
Iraqi people of a murderous dictator, and rid the world of a gathering
threat to our peace and security. By liberating both these nations, we
replaced breeding grounds for terrorism with emerging democracies, and
we have made the American people more secure. (Applause.)
We've also overcome serious challenges to our economy. When the
President and I took office, the stock market was declining, and the
economy was sliding toward recession. Then, on 9/11, terrorists struck
our nation and shook our economy once again. We faced a basic decision
-- to leave more money with families and businesses, or to take more of
your tax dollars for the federal government. President Bush made his
choice. He proposed and delivered tax relief -- not once, not twice,
but three times. (Applause.)
We have much yet to do in our work on making this nation a
stronger, safer, better place for all who call it home. And today, I
want to discuss some of the vital reforms we need to improve the health
care system in the United States.
America's system of private medicine is producing remarkable
results, helping to improve lives here at home and to extend help to
patients from around the world. We are on the leading edge of medical
research and innovation. Yet we still face serious obstacles. We
believe too many citizens go without reliable access to medical care,
so President Bush has proposed refundable tax credits to allow
low-income Americans to buy health care coverage, regardless of what
their employers provide. Too many patients lack a primary care
provider, and are left to seek routine services in emergency rooms.
That drains critical resources at our hospitals. It delays treatment
for those who need vital care. So President Bush has opened or
expanded more than 600 community health centers, which provide
checkups, immunizations, and other basic care to patients needing
treatment.
For many Americans, the rising costs of health care are an
overwhelming concern, and President Bush has taken serious action to
bring costs under control. Our administration worked with Congress to
add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, and already millions of
seniors are saving on their monthly drug bills. We passed tax-free
health savings accounts, which are making health coverage more
affordable for many families. And we have increased funding for health
care information technology, so that we can eliminate needless expenses
and medical errors by creating computerized medical records for most
Americans over the next decade.
All of these steps are improving both the quality of care and
access to care for American families. Health care remains expensive,
and costs rise for many reasons. Research and new treatments can be
very costly. But some health care costs that are passed on to patients
are entirely needless. This problem doesn't start in the waiting
room. It doesn't start in the operating room. This problem starts in
the courtroom. Many lawsuits filed against doctors have no merit.
Even though they are baseless, these junk lawsuits are expensive to
fight, and many doctors -- encouraged by their insurance companies --
choose to settle out of court.
The picture has become clear across the country: huge payoffs for
personal injury trial lawyers; smaller shares of compensation for those
who have been wronged; and massive increases in medical liability
insurance premiums, for doctors across the country. Our medical
liability litigation system is broken. (Applause.)
This problem has been building for years, but we have now reached a
crisis level. You've seen it here in Ohio. Physicians in this state
saw their insurance premiums rise by an average of 30 percent last year
alone. Specialists have been hit even harder. Premiums for many
obstetricians in Ohio have more than doubled over the past year.
If malpractice premiums continue to rise at their current rate, a
third of Ohio's physicians say they will close their practices within
two years. The Columbus Dispatch reported the story of an obstetrician
in Akron who is considering closing his practice this year. This
physician has been delivering babies for two decades without a single
malpractice judgment against him. Yet his insurance premium has
increased by almost 400 percent in the last two years alone. He was
quoted as saying: "Two dozen OB/GYNs in my area have closed their
practices in the past two years. If my sad prediction is correct,
after next year, there will be none left."
We're seeing similar losses all over the country. According to
news reports about my home state of Wyoming, 50 physicians closed or
curtailed their practices last year alone. In my hometown of Casper,
more than a dozen doctors left. A surgeon from the city of Torrington
described to a reporter how hard it is getting to recruit new
physicians into Wyoming. He said, we tell them, okay, your malpractice
premium is going to be $80,000 dollars, and you need to pay that in
cash, up front. They just look at us like we're nuts.
Nationwide, 20 percent of hospitals have been forced to cut back on
critical services, such as delivering babies, cardiovascular surgery,
and orthopedic surgery. In many states, trauma care physicians are
dropping emergency room duty -- one of the most frequent targets of
malpractice claims -- and leaving patients with urgent medical needs to
lose precious time waiting for urgent care. Doctors of all specialties
are reverting to defensive medicine, ordering unnecessary procedures
and expensive tests to guard against any potential malpractice
complaint.
Patients end up paying for this defensive medicine, and so do the
taxpayers. Efforts by physicians to avoid medical liability claims
cost the federal government billions of dollars every year. Fear of
frivolous medical lawsuits drives up the cost of Medicare, Medicaid,
veterans' health care, and other government health benefits. And it
has a bad effect on the small business sector, as well. I have met
with small business owners all across the country, including here in
Ohio. They all want to provide good health benefits to employees, but
some won't do it because of the costs involved, or because of the
potentially huge costs of being sued. They know junk lawsuits could
destroy their business and put people out of work.
Medical liability litigation is a serious problem in almost every
state in the land, and it's not getting any better. Frivolous lawsuits
are clogging the courts, and delaying justice for those with real
problems. Some states have done their best to confront the crisis on
their own. Here in Ohio, just weeks ago, Governor Bob Taft and the
state legislature passed sound medical liability reforms. Yet
individual states can only do so much.
The health care system across America remains dangerously
unbalanced. It makes no sense for a general surgeon in Ohio to pay up
to $75,000 a year in insurance premiums, while a general surgeon with
the same responsibilities could pay $14,000 dollars a year next-door in
Indiana. The federal government has a responsibility to act when
justice is clearly being undermined and unfair practices are damaging
our national economy. Medical litigation abuse is a national problem,
and it needs a national solution. (Applause.)
The time for action is now. We must protect the rights of those
with real grievances, and we have to fix the medical liability problem
at its source -- the frivolous lawsuits that are filed solely with the
hope of winning massive verdicts. That is why President Bush has set
forth some responsible, practical reforms to put doctors and patients
back in charge of health care in America. (Applause.)
The President and I strongly support the rights of all Americans to
bring legitimate claims before a court. Tragically, some patients are
victims of terrible medical errors, and there is no doubt that they
deserve to collect damages to fully cover their injuries, recovery,
rehabilitation, and loss of income. But there has to be a common sense
limit on the punitive and non-economic damages plaintiffs can collect,
otherwise insurance premiums and patient costs will continue spiraling
out of control. So the President has proposed a reasonable federal cap
of $250,000 on non-economic damage awards, to ensure that victims
receive justice, and that other Americans can get access to the
affordable health care they need.
We also need reform in joint and several liability. Under the
current system, doctors sometimes pay for mistakes they themselves
didn't even make. That is unfair. When more than one person is
responsible for a patient's injuries, we need to assign blame fairly,
and divide the payment of damages accordingly. Doctors should be held
accountable for any harm they cause, but not for damages inflicted by
someone else. (Applause.)
Finally, we need to let doctors and hospitals work to address
medical errors without fearing that their efforts will be used against
them one day. Some doctors believe they cannot share important
information with their colleagues on best clinical practices, because
they fear personal injury trial lawyers might use that information
against them in court. That's not right. We should not be expecting
doctors to practice law, and we should not get the personal injury
trial lawyers -- and we should get the personal injury trial lawyers
out of the practice of medicine. (Applause.)
The President's proposals are sound, sensible reforms. They deal
with the challenges at hand and strengthen our world-class health care
system. They have the support of reliable, nonpartisan organizations
like the American Medical Association. And we are confident our
reforms will work, because we have already seen them succeed. In
California, for example, non-economic damages have been capped at
$250,000 since 1975. In that state, insurance premiums are now
one-half to one-third lower than premiums in states without similar
caps. Not only is this law reducing the cost of care, it is also
realigning the system's priorities. Personal injury trial lawyers take
home a smaller percentage of malpractice verdicts than they did before
the reforms, so injured patients now take home a greater share of the
compensation that is awarded.
We've worked hard to pass medical liability reform in Congress.
The House has passed good legislation each of the past two years, but
both times the Senate failed to act. This problem is too serious to
let the Senate off the hook once again. For the sake of our doctors,
and the patients they serve, we need medical liability reform now.
(Applause.)
The President's opponent, Senator Kerry, of Massachusetts, takes a
different view of the medical liability crisis. Over his years in the
Senate, he's been a consistent opponent of reforms to help doctors,
patients, and families control the rising health care costs associated
with medical liability. Senator Kerry has opposed or blocked medical
liability reform no fewer than 10 times, including twice in the last
three years.
Senator Kerry has also declined to support even the most common
sense reforms. Let me give you an example. Twice this year, the
Senate considered legislation to enact medical liability reform
specifically designed for the specialty areas where the situation is
the most severe -- OB/GYN and trauma services. There was a clear
choice at hand: whether to side with patients and their doctors who
save lives and deliver babies, or with the personal injury trial
lawyers who take those doctors to court. President Bush made his
choice, and strongly supported these reforms. Senator Kerry made his
choice, as well. He didn't even show up to vote on either one of those
bills.
Senator Kerry's running mate is a trial lawyer who is very
experienced at suing doctors. And together they are two of the most
consistent opponents of medical liability reform in the United States
Senate. Based on their record, there is little doubt that a
Kerry-Edwards administration would have no interest in liability
reform. Simply stated, when it comes to the legal crisis in American
health care, the Kerry-Edwards ticket is on the side of personal injury
trial lawyers, and the Bush-Cheney ticket is on the side of doctors and
their patients. (Applause.)
That is one of the crucial differences in this campaign, and the
President and I are going to make our position very clear to the
voters. We come at this issue with a practical point of view, which we
believe is shared by the vast majority of Americans. All of us
understand that when we are sick, or the health of our loved ones is in
question, we don't need a lawyer. We need the experienced, trusted
doctors that we've known and relied on for years. (Applause.) Whether
your son or daughter needs an emergency operation, or your wife is in
labor, or your mom or dad has to see an experienced cardiologist, you
want to be able to call on qualified, caring doctors. And runaway
litigation is driving doctors away from their patients when their
patients need them most.
The medical liability crisis is threatening the future of medicine
in our country, and government has a duty to act. It is time for
Congress to pass medical liability reform according to the sound
principles the President has set forth. Working together, we will
protect the relationship between doctors and their patients. We will
preserve the rights of patients who are hurt by doctors, or who
practice bad medicine. And by our actions, we will bring doctors back
to their communities, so they can focus on what's best for their
patients.
Once again, let me thank you all for being here today. America's
medical professionals are the single greatest strength of our health
care system. They have devoted their lives to help -- the high calling
of others, and the nation is grateful to each and every one of them.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 5:30 P.M. EDT
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