Cheney Urges Cap on Malpractice Awards | WP | 7.20.04
Vice President Cheney, with a swipe at his Democratic trial-lawyer counterpart, yesterday blamed rising health care costs on “runaway litigation” and promoted a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice awards as the central tenet of the White House program to improve access, affordability and quality of care. …
“This problem doesn’t start in the waiting room,” Cheney said in remarks released by the campaign. “It doesn’t start in the operating room. The problem starts in the courtroom.” …
“When it comes to the legal crisis in American health care, the Kerry-Edwards ticket is on the side of personal-injury trial lawyers, and the Bush-Cheney ticket is on the side of doctors and patients,” Cheney said, noting that Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) “is a trial lawyer who is very experienced at suing doctors.” …
“The Bush administration largely gets it backwards,” said Columbia University law professor and physician William M. Sage. “They say health care is expensive because of lawsuits. I say lawsuits are expensive because of our health care system.” …
“Senator Kerry and I stand with families and kids as we always have and as we believe it’s important for the president and the vice president to do, instead of being on the side of insurance companies and big drug companies, which is, unfortunately, where they are,” Edwards said during a campaign stop in North Carolina. …
There should be sparks flying in the upcoming vice–presidential debates—none of which coming will be coming from Cheney’s AICD.