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

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today in support of S. 2061, the Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act, the principal sponsors of which were Senator Gregg and Senator Ensign.

Much of America cannot access basic medical services because lawsuits are driving insurance premiums through the roof and driving doctors literally out of business. Seven months ago a majority of Senators voted to try to do something about this problem. Unfortunately, not a single Democratic Senator supported our effort and therefore we could not overcome a filibuster and were prevented from even considering S. 11, the Patients First Act of 2003.

In the last 7 months, the crisis has gotten no better. That is the bad news. The good news is our resolve has not waned so again we are before the American people waiting and willing to roll up our sleeves to fix this problem if our friends on the other side of the aisle will let us have a chance.

Like the bill we offered last July, the reforms we are now proposing are tried and true. They are based on California's MICRA legislation, which for a quarter of a century has stabilized insurance premiums and helped ensure access to health care for those in the Golden State. The Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act would allow plaintiffs to recover unlimited economic damages, up to a quarter million dollars in noneconomic damages, and punitive damages up to the greater of a quarter million or twice economic damages.

While the reforms in S. 2061 are similar to those in MICRA and S. 11, the scope of S. 2061 is much more narrow. The bill we are asking the Senate to begin considering today pertains only to obstetrics and gynecological services. If our friends across the aisle will not help us protect all medical professionals with MICRA-type reforms, then perhaps they will let us take this important step toward reform by protecting at least one specialty.

OB/GYNs provide some of the most critical medical services in our country. Unfortunately, OB/GYNs also suffer from some of the highest premiums. As a result, women and children across our country are placed in danger as they struggle to find, oftentimes unsuccessfully, basic obstetric care. This is a nationwide problem. Data from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists illustrates the legal and financial jeopardy faced by OB/GYNs across our country today.

Obstetrics and gynecology are among the top three specialties with the highest professional liability insurance premiums. OB/GYNs were No. 1 among 28 specialty groups in the number of claims filed against them. OB/GYNs were also the highest of all specialty groups in the average cost of defending against a claim. OB/GYNs are also facing enormous increases in the average payout of claims brought against them.

For example, back in 1996, the average award against an OB/GYN was $254,495. Between 1996 and 1998, the average award went up to about $350,000-from $250,000 up to $350,000 in 2 years. By 2000, the average award against an OB/GYN had increased to about $400,000. That is an increase of almost 40 percent in 4 short years.

This phenomenon is even more striking when one looks at cases involving alleged brain injuries to newborns. Such cases account for 30 percent of all claims against OB/GYNs but research shows physician error is responsible for fewer than 4 percent of neurologically impaired infants. Despite the rarity of physician error in these cases, the average award in these few cases where obstetricians are at fault has dramatically increased in just a few years. In 1996, the average award in these type cases was about $460,000. Two years later, the average award had doubled to $935,000.

Today, the median award in childbirth cases has risen to over $2 million. This is the highest category of award for all types of medical liability cases. American women should not be misled by these statistics. They should not worry that despite annual advances in medical technology and training there is somehow an increasingly poor level of obstetric care in this country.

No, these troubling statistics do not mean America's medical schools have lowered their standards and a rash of incompetent obstetricians has begun to practice medicine. In fact, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, over 80 percent of all cases that went to verdict against an OB/GYN resulted in judgments for the physician. In other words, on average eight out of 10 cases that went to trial against OB/GYNs were not meritorious.

It is the dramatic increase in awards noted above and the specter of such awards in settlement negotiations that is driving malpractice premiums through the roof, not a lowering of medical standards for practice.

Looking at my own State, the immediate result of skyrocketing liability premiums is the doctors pack up and move to a State such as California with liability reform or they just simply close their doors altogether. When this happens, the ultimate victims, of course, are the patients, the mothers and their children.

Let's take a look at the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky does not have a medical liability reform system. Not surprisingly, liability insurance rates for OBs in my State increased 64 percent in one year from 2002 to 2003. Also not surprisingly in the last 3 years, Kentucky has lost one-fourth of its obstetricians.

Moreover, Kentucky has lost nearly half its potential obstetric services during this time when one factors in those who have limited their practices.

As this chart I have shows, roughly 60 percent of the counties in the Commonwealth of Kentucky have no obstetrician at all-none. These are counties in red on this map. It is a majority of the counties in my State that have no obstetricians at all.

Other counties, such as Perry County, down in southeast Kentucky, down this way, technically have a practicing OB/GYN, but that one doctor has stopped delivering babies within the last year, so if you are in Perry County, that doesn't do you much good. Still other counties, such as Greenup, Lawrence, and Johnson Counties, in northeast Kentucky, have just one OB/GYN in each county, so if you are a woman in those counties you better hope there is not another woman having a baby when you are, or the doctor isn't out of town or busy with another patient. If that happens, you are going to have to drive through the hills on the backroads of eastern Kentucky to try to find a doctor to deliver your baby. All told, 82 of Kentucky's 120 counties have no OBs, or just have one OB.

According to Dr. Doug Milligan of Lexington, who specializes in caring for women with high-risk pregnancies, 11 OBs in eastern Kentucky have recently quit delivering babies or left the State, forcing women to drive for hours.

According to Dr. Milligan, apart from problems with delivering babies, some women are developing complications because they are not getting prenatal care.

So what should we conclude from all of this? The situation I have just described is not, unfortunately, unique to Kentucky. As you will hear from my colleagues, States across the country are in similar straits. So I commend Senator Gregg and Senator Ensign for trying to address this important problem.

As I have said earlier, their legislation is modeled on reforms that have stood the test of time in California, and it has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and a host of other medical organizations.

I hope a dozen brave souls on the other side of the aisle will give the Senate a chance to consider this bill.

I yield the floor.