• source - Scranton Times - Tribune By Mary Jo Feldstein •
Too many expensive lawsuits ending in excessive jury awards and settlements are driving up health care costs and sending physicians out of states such as Pennsylvania, Mr. Bush said Thursday to an audience of about 1,200 at the University of Scranton's Byron Recreation Center.
"Health care costs rise for a lot of reasons," Mr. Bush said during a 36-minute address. "And some of those costs are necessary. But there are other costs that are unnecessary as far as I'm concerned. And the problem of those unnecessary costs don't start in the waiting room, or the operating room. They start in the courtroom."
Mr. Bush culminated his whirlwind tour of Scranton with his noontime speech. He focused primarily on lowering physicians' malpractice premiums through changes to the legal system, but also touched on America's failing economy and troubles with Iraq.
Before the speech, Mr. Bush held a roundtable discussion at Mercy Hospital where 10 physicians and patients related how rising malpractice insurance costs have affected their lives. The attendees included Scranton physician Debra DeAngelo, her patient Joey Lee and Mercy chief executive Jim May. Mr. Bush's entire visit lasted less than three hours.
Mr. Bush said "junk" lawsuits are being settled so doctors can avoid suffering the consequences of "a lousy jury" or "a lousy verdict."
"And one thing the American people must understand is, even though the lawsuits are junk lawsuits and have no basis, they're still expensive," Mr. Bush said.
The president did not mention the need for insurance reform. Many trial lawyers and Democrats say it's the lack of such reform that causes premiums to increase. Scranton attorney Mike Foley said insurers are only increasing rates to absorb money they lost in the stock market.
He said capping damages is the biggest form of corporate welfare because it "balances the ledgers of the insurance industry on the backs of injured patients."
Dr. Shawn Hennigan, a Scranton orthopedic surgeon, said the insurance industry defense is only a smoke screen.
"I think the truth is that this state pays out far too much in awards," said Dr. Hennigan, 34.
Mr. Bush said he supports limiting noneconomic damages such as those awarded for pain and suffering to $250,000. He also supports limiting rarely awarded punitive damages and attorneys' fees.
"Excessive jury awards will continue to drive up insurance costs, will put good doctors out of business or run them out of your community, and it will hurt communities like Scranton, Pennsylvania," Mr. Bush said.
One of the "excessive jury awards" that Mr. Bush referred to was actually a $7 million settlement last week. Involved in the case was Mercy Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, two physicians and Dorothy Thornton, the widow of a man who ultimately died after a ventilator tube was improperly placed in his esophagus instead of his trachea. Mercy admitted responsibility as part of the settlement agreement.
Mrs. Thornton's attorney, Joe Quinn, said he was sitting with her when she saw the speech on television.
"She said to me, 'I am proud of what we did. I did it so other families would not have to go through what I did,'" Mr. Quinn said. "Why try to vilify someone who never said, 'I won't listen to a reasonable offer?'"
Less than an hour after Mr. Bush's speech, Gov.-elect Ed Rendell told a news conference the president's speech fell short in offering a comprehensive solution to the growing medical malpractice problem that he and the state legislature are tackling.
Mr. Rendell said he hasn't ruled out caps as part of the solution. But he questioned whether federal caps would work soon enough and said the federal government also needs to increase Medicare and Medicaid money -- instead of cutting both -- so doctors can afford higher premiums. Mr. Bush could immediately help local doctors by reclassifying the region into one that gets more Medicare money, he said.
"We don't need advice. We know the problem," he said. "The president should not have come in and just given us advice. He should have come in and given us help -- plain and simple as that."
Mr. Quinn said reforming the insurance industry through tougher regulation of premiums and investments is also crucial to lowering premiums.
"We need to get rid of the frivolous cases and at the same time force the recognition and prompt settlement of the legitimate cases," Mr. Quinn said. "Do you think if George Bush Sr. had been the victim of such outrageous care as Frank Thornton Sr. was, do you think that his family would have thought that they had received fair and complete justice by payment of $250,000?"
Mr. Bush spoke only briefly about negligent doctors.
The patient safety initiatives Mr. Bush supports are outlined in a Department of Health and Human Services report released last year. While the report emphasizes the need for peer review, it also says the outcome of the reviews and physicians malpractice histories should remain secret.
BORYS KRAWCZENIUK and JENNIFER L. HENN, Tribune staff writers, contributed to this report.
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