WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, September 9, President Barack Obama delivered a nationwide address on health care. After outlining a number of priorities, the President stated that he would be instructing the U.S. Department Health and Human Services to move forward immediately on a medical malpractice reform initiative authored by Congressman Bart Gordon.

The day after the speech, Sept. 10, the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained the Administration plans for medical malpractice: “The president and his team will look at very closely what Congressman Bart Gordon put in the Energy and Commerce legislation…to cut down on unnecessary costs and…defensive medicine.”

“The Administration is going to move forward with my proposals immediately,” Gordon added, “test them out in a number of states, and, as I understand it, develop a national policy to effectively reduce frivolous lawsuits.”

Gordon’s amendment to the House Energy and Commerce bill was modeled around a program the State of Tennessee implemented in 2008, which has proven thus far to be effective. The primary goals of Gordon’s amendment were to reduce frivolous malpractice lawsuits and encourage doctors to abandon the practice of defensive medicine.

“Defensive medicine is when doctors order tests and procedures to avoid being legally vulnerable and sued for medical malpractice,” explained Gordon. “This practice has been estimated to cost more than $200 billion each year – it’s one of the largest sources of wasteful spending in the U.S. health care system and we need to do something about it.”

Gordon’s malpractice reform provision will provide incentives to states that implement a “Certificate of Merit” or “Early Offer” program as alternatives to going to court. These programs have been shown to be effective in multiple states at reducing the number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed. Gordon’s measure is the only medical malpractice provision that has been adopted in any of the health care reform proposals before Congress.

WASHINGTON – Congress is currently considering three pieces of legislation aimed at reforming America’s health care insurance system. The bills take different approaches to reducing health care costs for those with insurance and extending health care coverage to millions of Americans currently without insurance. U.S. Representative Bart Gordon is working closely with his colleagues to ensure that the reform bill passed by Congress meets the intended goals and provides necessary fixes to the country’s health insurance system without raising our federal budget deficit.

“People in Tennessee and around the country are spending more on health care than on food or housing. More than 45 million uninsured Americans are getting their health care in emergency rooms, which drives costs up for those with insurance,” explained Gordon. “If we don’t reform health care, insurance premiums will continue to rise and push our country further into debt. However, we must slow down and get it done right. It is too important of an issue.”

Health care costs have doubled between 1996 and 2006. Currently, one out of every six dollars is spent on health care in the United States. In Tennessee alone, average family insurance premiums have increased by 77% since 2000.

“Health care insurance reform should focus on finding every penny of savings within our current system, as well as eliminate the waste and inefficiencies that have been shown to amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year,” said Gordon. “Our goal should be to reduce health care costs and ensure affordable coverage is available to individuals, families and small businesses.”

Gordon, accompanied by seven other conservative Democrats, recently laid out concerns with the current legislation to the President. During the meeting, Gordon emphasized the importance of passing a bill that does not increase the deficit, hurt families or small businesses, or create a single-payer, government-run health insurance system.

“Health insurance reform is needed, but we must take time to get it right,” reiterated Gordon. “I am working to see that the bill we ultimately pass is a bipartisan bill that can get through both the House and Senate.”