COLLINSVILLE, Illinois, Jan 5 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush pushed lawmakers Wednesday to approve legislation imposing a ceiling on some damages awarded in malpractive lawsuits against health care provides and insurers.
"The United States Congress needs to pass real medical liability reform this year," the president, who won a second four-year term in the November 2 elections, said in a speech here.
The White House blames lawsuits for contributing to skyrocketing health care costs in the United States, and says that rising malpractice insurance premiums are driving competent doctors out of business.
Bush pushed several times in his first term for overhauling the system, but failed to win approval for such sweeping changes even though his Republican party enjoyed a narrow majority over Democrats in the US Congress.
The president hopes that a slightly wider edge over the opposition party will enable him to make his proposals law, including capping "pain and suffering" damages at 250,000 dollars.
"We have the best health care system in the world," said Bush. "And I look forward to working with members of both political parties to do something about our health care system."
The president was speaking in a city his aides say is a paradise for plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuits, who get generous awards, to illustrate his contention that the problem is out of control.
But Democrats and other critics have challenged his diagnosis of the situation and now say his cure would only worsen the prognosis, while accusing him of doing nothing to stem rising health care costs on other fronts.
"Since George W. Bush took office, health care costs have soared as the average family health insurance premium has increased by over 3,500 dollars a year, reaching almost 10,000 dollars today," said a spokesman for Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Phil Singer.
"Despite overwhelming evidence that his medical malpractice proposal will not work and opposition from within his own party, Bush continues to call for this bogus reform," said Singer.
"If Congress wants to control rising malpractice insurance premiums, then we must enact tough insurance reforms to promote real competition in the insurance industry," Singer said in a statement emailed to reporters.
"By ignoring the central truth of this crisis -- that it is a problem within the insurance industry, not the tort system -- the administration has proposed a plan that punishes victims by capping non-economic damages," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said in a statement.
01/05/2005 21:52 GMT - AFP