On Monday, October 19, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona shared with his colleagues in the Senate what he has been hearing from his constituents on Health Care Reform. Senator Kyl gave a 20-minute presentation in which he aptly articulated the concerns most Americans are expressing about the Health Care Reform bill.  Although it is a bit long, this is a “must-see” speech for everyone who cares about the future of health care in America.

Medical-liability reforms such as capping noneconomic damages and tightening the statute of limitation for filing a suit would trim $54 billion from the federal deficit over 10 years, largely by curbing defensive medicine, according to a report released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Overall, tort reform would reduce the nation’s healthcare spending by 0.5%, the report stated. Forty percent of these savings would stem from lower malpractice insurance premiums for providers. The rest of the savings would result from lower use of healthcare services, as providers would order fewer tests and procedures intended simply to avoid a lawsuit.

The CBO estimate of tort reform’s potential to reduce the deficit is roughly 10 times greater than what it projected last December (a reduction of $54 billion instead of $5.6 billion). At that time, the agency said that evidence about the extent of defensive medicine — and how tort reform could reduce it — was murky. However, more recent research suggests that “lowering the cost of medical malpractice tends to reduce the use of health care services,” according to the latest CBO report.

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From Sermo.com; the group responsible for the petition:

Join Sermo to add your signature to the Physicians’ Appeal below. And let lawmakers know that you want to contribute to the reform process. After the August recess, the signed Appeal will be delivered to Senators in every state. Each Senator will then be invited to speak with the Sermo community about the real issues at the root of spiraling healthcare costs.

To the American People,

We, the physicians of this country want to reform healthcare to improve the quality and access to care for our patients while reducing costs. True healthcare reform will only succeed if:

• Unnecessary tests and procedures are reduced through tort and malpractice reform
• Doctors are allowed to spend more time with their patients and less time on paperwork by streamlining billing and making pricing more transparent (create an alternative to CPT codes).
• Medical decisions are made by physicians and their patients, not insurance company administrators.
• Adequate supply of qualified physicians is assured by revising the methods used for calculating reimbursements.

We invite policy makers to work directly with the men and women who are on the frontlines of healthcare each and every day caring for the citizens of this country.

We pledge to be partners in true healthcare reform, improving the healthcare delivery system in this country while honoring the Hippocratic oath that we all have taken.

Respectfully Yours,

America’s Physicians