Ensign gives legislators an opposing view to Reid speech

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A day after Democratic Sen. Harry Reid addressed state lawmakers, Republican Sen. John Ensign's speech Wednesday underscored the two men's opposing views on medical malpractice issues and federal funding for education.

Ensign said that in the next few weeks he will introduce a bill to limit each jury award for medical malpractice to $250,000 for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, as proposed by President Bush.

Ensign said Nevada's Legislature "took the first step to stop the exodus" of doctors with the last year's law imposing a $350,000 cap.

But it will be five years before the Nevada law has an an effect because of expected legal challenges, Ensign said.

He said he is modeling his bill on the laws in California and Colorado. An obstetrician in Clark County may pay $141,000 in medical malpractice insurance compared with $54,000 in Los Angeles and $30,000 in Denver.

Reid has said that juries should have discretion to decide compensation for lives lost or destroyed by medical malpractice. In his speech to the Legislature on Tuesday, Reid decried Bush's call for the $250,000 medical malpractice liability cap. Reid also condemned the insurance industry for "conspiring to fix rates."

"State insurance commissions must vigorously protect consumers from price gouging from insurance companies," Ensign said. "Medical liability reform is not enough, It is essential that doctors enforce accountability within their own profession."

Another key topic was federal funding for education. Reid had called the No Child Left Behind Act another example of an unfunded federal mandate and said states may not get the federal money promised to them to implement the provisions of the act.

Ensign met with Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and other senators before his speech Wednesday to try to quell their concerns that the federal government will not provide the money needed for the costly student testing program required by the Bush administration's education reforms.

"We will provide the funds from Washington D.C., to implement the No Child Left Behind Act," Ensign promised.

He said Nevada should receive $75 million over the next five years from the act. The bill will provide flexibility in how states use education dollars and increases accountability by requiring annual testing in math, science and reading, he said.

"There is adequate funding to implement the testing," Ensign said. "But even if there isn't, it specifically says in the bill that this is not going to be an unfunded mandate because you don't have to do the testing if we don't provide the funds."

Ensign also said the United States is going to war with Iraq "unless there is a miracle." Reid had told the Legislature on Tuesday that war was not inevitable, but likely.

Ensign said a war would hurt the Nevada economy in the short term.

"But much less than if we had a terrorist attack in the United States," he said. "If there is a terrorist attack in the United States, the economic impact is much worst then us going to war."

He said unless there is a preemptive strike, there could be another tragedy like Sept. 11, 2001.

"It is never an easy decision to send our sons and daughters into war. But if we don't stop Saddam Hussein now, all of our children are in an unacceptable risk," Ensign said. "We didn't pick this fight. We cannot ignore it."

After his speech, Ensign told reporters he doesn't expect the war to last long.

"I have trust in our military and I have trust in our president and they say they will take him out," he said. "They will disarm Saddam Hussein. I have full confidence."