SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

July 6, 2004
Press Release

JULY 6, 2004

SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued "The Bush Administration Misstatement of the Day" on medical malpractice.

Vice President Dick Cheney said on July 1, 2004 during a speech in Macon, Georgia:

Our country needs medical liability reform to control the costs of health care. Here in Georgia and across the nation, doctors should be able to spend their time healing patients, not fighting off frivolous lawsuits.
However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the costs from malpractice lawsuits represent less than 2% of the nation's total health care spending. According to the CBO:
"Malpractice costs amounted to an estimated $24 billion in 2002, but that figure represents less than 2 percent of overall health care spending. Thus, even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small."