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Bush, Edwards and medical liability reform
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush traveled to Scranton, Pennsylvania (his 18th trip to this battleground state) on Thursday to push for caps on medical malpractice awards. The president argued for legal reform during his run for the White House. But this latest proposal is viewed by some as an indirect jab at one of Bush's Democratic opponents for the White House in 2004, trial lawyer-turned-Senator, John Edwards, D-North Carolina. On January 2, the day that Edwards announced his candidacy, the Republican National Committee put out a 14-page email documenting: • Edwards is a trial lawyer who won a record-setting $23 million verdict in 1997; • most of the money for his political action committee came from fellow trial lawyers; and • he has opposed attempts to cap jury awards. In July, the president traveled to Edwards' home state, arguing that frivolous lawsuits are driving up health care costs. Several Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee, including Edwards, hit back at the call for liability caps, arguing that the president is trying to re-write civil law and reduce patients' rights. Edwards says he, too, is concerned that the high cost of malpractice insurance is driving doctors away from risky procedures. But he blames the insurance companies that invest their money in the stock market. "If the stock market goes down, their investments aren't doing well, they're losing money. So what do they do? They raise the premiums on doctors," Edwards said last week.
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