Ensign to re-introduce malpractice limit bill

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005 | 11:20 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., today plans to re-assert his role as a leader in the Senate Republican effort to cap noneconomic awards in medical malpractice cases at $250,000.

Ensign believes out-of-control "pain and suffering" awards are a large part of the sky-rocketing cost of malpractice insurance, which has driven doctors out of some states, including Nevada. Ensign and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., today plan to re-introduce legislation that would limit the awards. The issue was one that featured prominently in President Bush's stump speeches during his re-election campaign.

"This crisis is affecting more and more patients and is threatening access to reliable quality healthcare services," Ensign and Gregg wrote in a letter to their Senate colleagues, seeking to drum up support for a new debate in Congress.

Critics, among them Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., say the proposal would trample the rights of malpractice victims. There are 100,000 people a year who suffer from doctor negligence, Reid said.

Republicans can "say all the bad things they want about lawyers," said Reid, a lawyer. But Democrats aim to preserve a patient's right to be compensated for malpractice, Reid said.

"There is a crisis -- OK," Reid said. "It's a medical-malpractice crisis."

Reid met this week with Dianne Meyer, of Summerlin, who lost her legs below the knee directly because of a failure to diagnose a large kidney stone. Meyer and about 50 other victims of medical negligence were lobbying on Capitol Hill this week.

Nevada voters approved a ballot initiative in November that capped jury awards at $350,000, among the strictest limits in the nation. The Nevada State Medical Association has said the measure is helping to restore doctor confidence in the state as a good place to practice. Lawyer groups say the law is bad for patients who deserve compensation set by a jury, not set at an arbitrary cap.