Republicans hope to use savings from malpractice reforms to fund repeal of 2010 health care law
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are taking another stab at changing health care policy. The House Wednesday is slated to begin debate on a GOP proposal to limit medical malpractice costs.
The House is slated to begin debate Wednesday on a GOP proposal to limit medical malpractice costs. The bill would limit non-economic damages to $250,000, allow courts to limit attorney contingency fees and cap punitive damages to the greater of two times the economic losses, or $250,000.
It would also deny all punitive damages for drugs and medical devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration, or otherwise in compliance with FDA standards.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., is co-sponsored by Louisiana Reps. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, John Fleming, R-Minden, Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson and Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia. Gingrey, Boustany and Fleming are doctors.
Not co-sponsoring the bill are Reps. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, who is also a doctor and Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans.
The bill is opposed by many Democrats, but also some conservative Republicans who contend it would supersede state malpractice reform measures, including in Louisiana.
Like previous malpractice reform proposals, the current GOP legislation pits business groups that favor limits on malpractice awards against lawyers who maintain that threats of lawsuit ensure better medical care for all Americans.
Republicans hope to use savings from the malpractice reforms to pay for another pending bill that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act to keep Medicare costs down.
Members of the Obama administration said the board is a key component of the health law's effort to prevent big increases in Medicare costs.
Republicans, who are pushing for repeal of the 2010 health care law, contend that the board would have too much power. Fleming has likened it to an old-style Soviet bureaucracy.
Supporters argue that the board will help keep Medicare costs from bankrupting the program while providing Congress with the means to veto cuts members object to, as long as they find comparable cost-saving measures.
The repeal effort has won the support of some Democrats. But their support is in jeopardy now that the GOP is looking to fund the increased costs generated by repeal -- estimated at over $3 billion by the Congressional Budget Office -- through malpractice reform that most Democrats oppose.