This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

News Release

STATEMENT BY HHS SECRETARY TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Regarding House Passage of the Medical Malpractice Reform Bill

Legislation would improve Americans' access to care, encourage efforts to improve quality of care and squeeze the excesses and abuses out of the malpractice litigation system

Today's vote is a step in the right direction toward national reforms in our medical malpractice system. Now that the House has taken action, the Senate should follow. Americans increasingly are finding that their doctors are closing their practices, limiting the types of patients they will see, or leaving communities where they have long practiced because they cannot afford the rapidly increasing cost of malpractice insurance or because it is simply not available. This legislation moves us in the direction of addressing this problem.

In July, HHS released a report, "Confronting the New Health Care Crisis: Improving Health Care Quality and Lowering Costs By Fixing Our Medical Liability System," that highlighted the problems created by the rising costs of malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals -- particularly in states that have not reformed their legal systems. The report was updated this week.

The report is available at aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/litrefm.htm.

###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: January 16, 2003