Take Action Now for Medical Liability Reform, Says AAFP President

Contact your senators. Urge them to put an end to the debate over medical liability reform and bring the issue to the floor for a full vote.

That was the word from AAFP President Larry Fields, M.D., of Ashland, Ky., as he "rallied the troops" around an upcoming Senate vote on the Medical Care Access Protection Act of 2006, S. 22. Fields issued the call May 4 during his remarks to participants at the 2006 National Conference of Special Constituencies and Annual Leadership Forum in Kansas City, Mo.

Fields urged members to use the AAFP Speak Out Web site to send e-mails that outline the importance of passing medical liability reform legislation. He noted conference participants could visit the NCSC exhibit hall, where the Academy provided computers from which attendees at the meeting could e-mail their senators.

"While you're here, have fun, but also make some noise in D.C.," Fields told NCSC and ALF participants.

Medical liability reform has been debated by the U.S. Senate for two years. Reform legislation has passed the U.S. House, but it has languished in the Senate, unable to muster the necessary 60 votes to end debate.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., introduced S. 22 on May 3, and a vote to end debate on the bill has been scheduled for May 8. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., told reporters at a May 3 press briefing he expected supporters to amass at least 50 of the 60 votes needed for cloture.

"If the Senate gets more than 50 votes, it would be the first time in history that both the Senate and the House are on record in favor of medical liability reform," Fields told NCSC and ALF participants.

Fields' comments came after more than a month of intense AAFP activism on medical liability reform. On May 3, several Academy members from Tennessee contacted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to urge him to move on S. 22. That effort followed an April Speak Out Action Alert and Fields' tour of Capitol Hill, where he met with legislators and their aides to emphasize the impact of high medical liability premiums on patients' access to care.