Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Bush Addresses Medical Issues

Aired March 04, 2003 - 14:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Today, President Bush unveiled specifics of his Medicare drug plan. It would offer a discount prescription drug card for patients who stay in the traditional Medicare program. There would be a more generous drug benefit if they switched to a private or managed care plan. Medicare would completely cover screenings for cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The overhaul would cost $400 billion over ten years.
Critics from both parties questioned whether there was enough of an incentive for seniors to switch into those private plans.

The president also wants to limit malpractice awards, and today that debate continued on Capitol Hill. At issue, can you limit how much someone should be reimbursed for pain and suffering?

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us to talk about all of this -- hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

Miles, President Bush would like to limit how much people can get when a doctor makes an error and they sue the doctor. He proposed some limits in a speech today to the American Medical Association. This is his reasoning. Basically, there are doctor shortages in some parts of the country because doctors face these very, very high insurance premiums.

Well, why do they face high insurance premiums? Well, the president says it's because these huge jury awards have forced insurance companies to raise these premiums. The president talked about one such doctor shortage in Nevada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is a story about the lady -- and this happens all the time in Nevada -- named Ruth Valentine (ph). She's pregnant. She called more than 50 local doctors, and she couldn't find anybody in Nevada to serve her. So she went to Utah, where she's staying with friends until she has her baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, again, the theory is that as these premiums go up, doctors abandon their practice. The president mentioned OB/GYNs. Nationally, in the year 2002, their premiums went up 20 percent. In South Florida, where rates are particularly high, some obstetricians are paying $210,000 a year for insurance premiums. Now, let's take a look at those jury awards that the president mentioned. In 1994, the median jury award was 362,500. In 2000, that went up to 1 million.

So here's what the president wants to do. He wants to have a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering, and a $250,000 cap on punitive damages. He does not want to have a cap on what are called economic damages. In other words, because a doctor made an error and a person is unable to work, he would not propose a cap on, for example, getting lost wages.

Now, the other side says, if a doctor makes a mistake and seriously damages someone, why shouldn't that patient be able to get an unlimited amount of money? And here's what someone had to say who testified to Congress today. This woman went in for a hysterectomy, and ended up paralyzed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERRY KELLER, MALPRACTICE VICTIM: Our bad doctors need to be held accountable, just as President Bush has called for the executives of Enron to be held accountable. Doctors need to be held accountable. And the only recourse I, as a citizen, have is a jury system. That is my right. That is the only right and the only venue I have to hold the physician accountable for the care and trust that we are conditioned to give them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: The president would like to see these caps on jury awards put into place this year -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, interesting timing. In the news, as these hearings were coming up, was this situation in North Carolina, Duke University, that terrible heart-lung transplant botch job there. Has that impacted this debate at all? Has it tainted the debate in one way or another?

COHEN: Yes, it's definitely made some people say, Well, gosh, I mean this girl was obviously the victim of a huge error. A doctor put the wrong type organs in the body. He didn't check the blood types. And so yes, it definitely has some people saying, why should that family be capped at $250,000 in pain and suffering? Why shouldn't they be able to get more?

O'BRIEN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much -- appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 4, 2003 - 14:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Today, President Bush unveiled specifics of his Medicare drug plan. It would offer a discount prescription drug card for patients who stay in the traditional Medicare program. There would be a more generous drug benefit if they switched to a private or managed care plan. Medicare would completely cover screenings for cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The overhaul would cost $400 billion over ten years.
Critics from both parties questioned whether there was enough of an incentive for seniors to switch into those private plans.

The president also wants to limit malpractice awards, and today that debate continued on Capitol Hill. At issue, can you limit how much someone should be reimbursed for pain and suffering?

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us to talk about all of this -- hello, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

Miles, President Bush would like to limit how much people can get when a doctor makes an error and they sue the doctor. He proposed some limits in a speech today to the American Medical Association. This is his reasoning. Basically, there are doctor shortages in some parts of the country because doctors face these very, very high insurance premiums.

Well, why do they face high insurance premiums? Well, the president says it's because these huge jury awards have forced insurance companies to raise these premiums. The president talked about one such doctor shortage in Nevada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is a story about the lady -- and this happens all the time in Nevada -- named Ruth Valentine (ph). She's pregnant. She called more than 50 local doctors, and she couldn't find anybody in Nevada to serve her. So she went to Utah, where she's staying with friends until she has her baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, again, the theory is that as these premiums go up, doctors abandon their practice. The president mentioned OB/GYNs. Nationally, in the year 2002, their premiums went up 20 percent. In South Florida, where rates are particularly high, some obstetricians are paying $210,000 a year for insurance premiums. Now, let's take a look at those jury awards that the president mentioned. In 1994, the median jury award was 362,500. In 2000, that went up to 1 million.

So here's what the president wants to do. He wants to have a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering, and a $250,000 cap on punitive damages. He does not want to have a cap on what are called economic damages. In other words, because a doctor made an error and a person is unable to work, he would not propose a cap on, for example, getting lost wages.

Now, the other side says, if a doctor makes a mistake and seriously damages someone, why shouldn't that patient be able to get an unlimited amount of money? And here's what someone had to say who testified to Congress today. This woman went in for a hysterectomy, and ended up paralyzed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERRY KELLER, MALPRACTICE VICTIM: Our bad doctors need to be held accountable, just as President Bush has called for the executives of Enron to be held accountable. Doctors need to be held accountable. And the only recourse I, as a citizen, have is a jury system. That is my right. That is the only right and the only venue I have to hold the physician accountable for the care and trust that we are conditioned to give them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: The president would like to see these caps on jury awards put into place this year -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, interesting timing. In the news, as these hearings were coming up, was this situation in North Carolina, Duke University, that terrible heart-lung transplant botch job there. Has that impacted this debate at all? Has it tainted the debate in one way or another?

COHEN: Yes, it's definitely made some people say, Well, gosh, I mean this girl was obviously the victim of a huge error. A doctor put the wrong type organs in the body. He didn't check the blood types. And so yes, it definitely has some people saying, why should that family be capped at $250,000 in pain and suffering? Why shouldn't they be able to get more?

O'BRIEN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much -- appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com