The administration may try to help the malpractice crisis. Bush Addressing Malpractice Insurance

-- The Bush administration renewed its push Wednesday to rein in medical malpractice litigation and address soaring insurance costs that are causing many doctors to flee certain communities and high-risk practices.

The fresh effort to restrict awards in malpractice cases was seen in a report Wednesday by Health and Human Services Department. President Bush also was making the issue a centerpiece of his visit Thursday to a hospital and university in High Point, N.C.

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The result has been closed practices, rising health care costs overall as doctors defensively prescribe unnecessary tests and treatments, and fewer physicians entering high-risk areas.

The solution is to limit damages for pain and suffering in malpractice cases, the report suggests.

"We must put an end to the malpractice litigation lottery that favors a handful of powerful personal injury lawyers and instead create a commonsense system," HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said.

Legislation in Congress would limit the pain and suffering and punitive portions of malpractice awards. The bill, intended to override state laws, would curtail lawyers' fees and allow juries to hear about the plaintiffs' other sources of income.

I hope that this initiative focusses the debate, but I fear politics will intervene again. The trial lawyers are whining. I really do not like the trial lawyers.