Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD announced that the Senate will hold a “Health Week” during the week of May 1, 2006, when the Senate will consider comprehensive medical liability reform (MLR) and legislation to create small business health plans.
Dr. Frist’s staff stated that the goals of the MLR debate are to highlight the issue and to increase the number of votes for MLR legislation. Senate Republican Leadership intends to file cloture on the motion to proceed to a MLR bill on Friday, April 28th, and then vote on the cloture motion on
May 2nd. The debate on the bill would be held on May 1st and 2nd.
A coalition of Republican Senators is currently drafting the bill. It is likely that Senator John Ensign (R-NV) will be the lead sponsor of the bill. Senator Frist’s staff has indicated that they would like to introduce the bill by April 7th before the Senate recesses for two weeks. However, it is possible that the bill will not be introduced until the Senate returns from recess April 24th. AMA staff has been working with the staffs of Dr. Frist and Senator Ensign to refine the bill and to provide them with new information on the medical liability crisis.
Dr. Frist’s staff indicated that the bill the Senate would consider would be based on the “HEALTH Act of 2005,” which is a MICRA-type bill that Senator Ensign previously introduced.
However, his staff also stated that many Senators expressed a desire to consider a bill that contained some different approaches to MLR so there would be new issues in this debate. Here are some of the possible provisions:
A cap on non-economic damages that is modeled after Texas’ stacked-cap on non-economic damages. Senate Republicans would like to highlight the results and achievements of the Texas MLR law.
The “Texas stacked-cap” will be a flexi-cap, meaning it would not undermine existing state caps (for example, Louisiana).
Attorney sanctions to limit the number of non-meritorious law suits, such as those contained in Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The AMA is prepared to launch a full scale campaign on behalf of this critical issue including radio, Internet, grassroots activities and possible television advertising. We look forward to working closely with our colleagues in the state and medical specialty societies to generate as much support for medical liability reform as possible. The Senate will be in recess from April 7 through April 24, so please set up meetings or try to contact staff while senators are back home. Please feel free to contact your regional political director for more information.
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