Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act of 2003-Motion to Proceed

HEALTHY MOTHERS AND HEALTHY BABIES ACCESS TO CARE ACT OF 2003-MOTION TO PROCEED

Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, for years America has enjoyed world class health care. We have led the way in cures and treatments. We have developed the latest and the best technologies, and we have ensured our doctors are trained in groundbreaking procedures. Indeed, our Nation has accomplished much in the area of health care.

But today, the future of our world-renowned health care system is at risk. Some trial lawyers have nearly crippled the system by filing hundreds of frivolous lawsuits each year and defeating efforts to place limits on these lawsuits and the big-money fees lawyers earn off of them.

Nineteen of our States are in a full-blown medical liability crisis, according to the American Medical Association. North Carolina is among the hardest hit, particularly our OB/GYNs, who face constantly rising, astronomical premiums just to stay in business. Many have been forced to move or quit their practices. This problem is particularly evident in our rural areas where some women have had to drive for miles just to find someone to deliver their baby. This is unacceptable.

It is understandable why doctors are leaving their practices, when the State's top five jury awards in 2001 ranged from $4.5 million to $15 million. The annual number of settlements greater than $1 million for medical liability cases has more than tripled between 1993 and 2002.

Meanwhile, women in our States are struggling.

Consider these facts: Obstetricians in western North Carolina are seeing their insurance premiums increase from 50 to 100 percent. Women's Care, P.A., the largest OB/GYN physician group in North Carolina saw its premiums increase 30 percent last year-for 3 times less coverage. One of its obstetricians will soon stop delivering babies. Others may join him.

And there are more stories. Dr. Mary-Emma Beres of Sparta, NC, a small town in the northwestern part of the State with a population just under 2,000, had to stop delivering babies after facing a 300 percent increase in her malpractice premiums. Her departure left only one obstetrician to handle high-risk cases. And it meant some women who needed C-sections had to endure a 40-minute ambulance ride to another hospital to deliver their baby.

Then there is Dr. John Schmitt. He is an OB/GYN who left his practice in Raleigh after seeing his insurance premiums triple from $17,000 to $46,000. He decided instead to join the medical school faculty at the University of Virginia. One of his patients, Laurie Peel, highlighted this dilemma best when she said, "When you are a woman, you try to find a gynecologist who will take you through lots of things in life. You develop a relationship with your doctor. To lose someone
like that is very hard."

It is time to stop this deplorable situation that leaves the most vulnerable and sickest among us as the real victims. No one in this country should have to struggle like this for health care. The America I know is better than that.

Doctors who do remain in business are forced to practice defensive medicine and order an excessive amount of tests and procedures to protect themselves from lawsuits. Dr. Steve Turner of Garner estimates that internists like him prescribe close to $5,000 a day in defensive medical practices or $1.2 million a year per doctor.

The legislation before us offers a solution that works. It is modeled after California's law which has been in place since 1975 and has kept premiums down in that State. This legislation does not cap damages. As you know, there are cases where compensation is absolutely justified and deserved. Under S. 2061, victims who suffer from a doctor's malpractice will be able to recover every penny of their actual economic damages. It does limit noneconomic damages, like pain and suffering. Punitive damages would be limited. But the legislation allows patients to collect for medical bills, funeral expenses and other costs. And States would still have the option of setting higher or lower caps than these in the bill.

Each week in North Carolina, nearly 2,200 babies are born and 300 of those babies are born early.

This legislation deals with the immediate crisis facing OB/GYNs, so that at the very least women can have the best health care available to them when they deliver their babies.

Today we have a choice. We can vote with those trial lawyers who file endless lawsuits and watch our health care system spiral into decay. Or we can put an end to this debate, and protect our health care system, by casting a vote for our patients and the medical professionals who so tirelessly care for them. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of cloture. Let's pass this bill for our patients who need it most.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.