House Passes Medical Malpractice Tort Reform Bill
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/29/house-passes-medical-malpractice-tort-reform-bill/
The House passed medical tort reform legislation Wednesday that is intended to help lower the cost of health insurance by lessening the burden of medical lawsuits.
Proposed by Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, the Protecting Access to Care Act (H.R. 1215), the bill passed with 218 yeas and 210 nays. The bill caps medical malpractice lawsuits by restricting plaintiff non-economic damages to $250,000. Juries may not be informed of this limitation.
"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that passage of King's 'Protecting Access to Care Act' would save federal taxpayers at least $50 billion over a ten-year period. In addition, the CBO has estimated that King's reforms would lower premiums for medical malpractice insurance by an average of 25 percent to 30 percent," the Iowa congressman said in a statement.
He added, "Importantly, the 'Protecting Access to Care Act' continues to allow an injured party to receive full compensation for measurable, economic harm (such as medical expenses or lost wages) that they have incurred. The damage cap only applies to an award of non-economic damages (such as punitive damages) that are, by their very nature, speculative, subjective, and wildly inconsistent."
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"One of the chief failings of the Affordable Care Act is that it never addressed the true cost-drivers of healthcare," said California Republican Rep. Congressman Darrell Issa of the bill in a statement Wednesday night. "We spend billions every year on unnecessary procedures just to shield providers from possible lawsuits and it makes health care more expensive for all of us."
The bill, according to Issa's office, is modeled after California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), which has reduced California's medical professional liability premiums, and Texas' Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act (MLIIA).
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