House Passes Medical Malpractice Bill

House Passes Medical Malpractice Bill

From Joan Claybrook & Frank Clemente at Public Citizen
Sept. 27, 2002

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4600, the draconian medical malpractice bill that would have preempted state laws, by a 217-203 vote. See below to find out how your member voted.

This is a very close vote for a liability measure in the House. In a way it represents a success for the patient and consumer side - given the fierce lobbying from the many special interest lobbies arrayed on their side and the success the doctors' lobby has had in portraying what is essentially an insurance industry problem as a lawsuit "crisis."

Thanks for all of your hard work on this important vote. The many thousands of phone calls and letters (sent through our fax system) made a difference, we are sure.

Regarding the vote, 15 Republicans voted NO, only 3 fewer than voted NO when the same measure was offered as a killer amendment to the Patients' Bill of Rights in August 2001. 14 Democrats voted YES, which represents a loss of 9 who voted NO last year.

Given this outcome in the House, the legislation appears dead for the year. The Senate voted to table (kill) a less draconian measure last July - it was an amendment offered to the Medicare prescription drug bill. That amendment was tabled on a 57 to 42 vote, although some who supported tabling it only did so because they did not want the measure to prevent progress on prescription drug legislation.

If you have the time a letter of thanks (or expression of dismay) to your member of Congress might be in order.

To view how your state's House members voted go to Public Citizen's vote scorecard at:
http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/votes/?votenum=421&chamber=H&congress=1072

The Senate vote is available at:
http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/votes/?votenum=197&chamber=S&congress=1072

If you have trouble with the link cut and paste the URL into your browser.

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Public Citizen is a national consumer advocacy organization with 150,000 members. For more information on health safety and other issues, please visit www.citizen.org.

Last Updated on 04/14/04 webmaster@namiscc.org

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