Athis biggest, and longest, healthcare policy address to date,President Obama on Monday stated that he’d been privatelydiscussing the idea of liability reform with the American MedicalAssociation for weeks.
Duringa closed-door sessions with the AMA last month, Obama acknowledgedthat limiting malpractice lawsuits could be an effective way toreduce healthcare costs, the New York Times reports. Traditionally,Democrats oppose such reforms, much to the chagrin of nursing home operators, physicians and otherproviders.
According to the Times, the Obama administration hopesthat public support of these liability reforms will garner physiciansupport for another reform proposal they are less in favor of—apublic insurance plan.
ThoughObama said he recognized the need to change the way liability lawsuits work,he ruled out the idea of a cap on malpractice suits, an approachstrongly favored by the AMA and other physician groups. Obama offered no specific liability overhaul plan during hisreform pitch, but he did say he was willing to explore a “range ofideas.”
