Todd A. Smith President Association of Trial Lawyers of America speaks out against Bushg Malpractice Plan

More than a week in advance, ATLA and groups working on behalf of medical malpractice and dangerous drug victims, those poisoned by asbestos and defrauded consumers began coordinating efforts to anticipate and respond to President Bush's week-long assault on the civil justice system and the legal rights of American families.

When the President went to Illinois on Wednesday to make his speech on medical malpractice, he was preceded by and met with an impassioned wave of opposition from medical malpractice victims, Members of Congress, consumer watchdog organizations, and trial lawyers.

ATLA issued an official statement, a fact sheet, Bush Administration Fakes Crisis, on the reality of medical malpractice in Madison County and nationally, and a one-pager, Insurance Industry Admits Caps Won?t Work."

Malpractice costs amounted to 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. [Congressional Budget Office, Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice, 1/08/04]

Even the Budget submitted by the Bush Administration did not cite savings from caps. Despite the Administration?s claims that severe caps on damages for victims will result in lower health care costs, the Bush-Cheney budget for 2005 does not include any healthcare savings associated with these caps. [Bush-Cheney FY2005 Budget]

Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans every year and cost as much as $29 billion, according to the Institute of Medicine. Other research suggests that the human toll may be far higher, with preventable errors and negligence taking the lives of 195,000 people each year. [To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, Institute of Medicine, 2000; Patient Safety in American Hospitals, HealthGrades, July 2004,

Inflation and other insurance industry forces drove up doctors? insurance premiums more than lawsuits, according to Weiss Ratings, Inc., a non-partisan, independent financial ratings company. These factors continue to drive med mal premiums up, evidently overwhelming any reduction in jury awards. The factors include, among other things, 75 percent inflation in medical costs and dramatic declines in insurers? investment income as the stock market collapsed. [Weiss Report, 6/3/03]