Frivolous/Junk Lawsuits + Docs
This repeat offense features Dubya railing against frivolous and/or junk lawsuits, which he claims to be the sole reason behind the rising costs of health care. This in itself is hilarious, but the fun really starts when you notice that Dubya always prefers to shorten the word "doctor" to "doc" when he's talking in this context. Also, on more than one occasion, Dubya has shifted the subject of the sentence to suggest that lawsuits are suing "docs" rather than litigants. Very odd. These have been noted with a triple asterisk for your convenience.

1. ***We want people to have access to the health care and we need it to be affordable. But we've got a problem, and that is, there's too many lawsuits. There's too many junk lawsuits suing our docs. It's one thing to hold a person to account, it's another thing to fill our courts with frivolous lawsuits. It's running up the cost of medicine. (Oct. 18, 2002)
2. We also must have medical liability reform. I'm worried about the — what I call frivolous lawsuits that make it hard for docs to practice medicine, and run up the cost of medicine. It makes medicine less affordable and less available. And by the way, frivolous lawsuits increase the cost of the federal budget to Medicaid and Medicare and veterans health benefits. You need your day in court when you run into a bad doc. But we've got to control these frivolous lawsuits because they're making health care too costly. (Nov. 3, 2003)
3. Another topic of conversation came up at our roundtable discussion, and that was the effect of junk lawsuits on the delivery of health care in America and in Nevada. You see, one of the things we must work for is a health care system which is affordable and available. Junk lawsuits, the threat of junk lawsuits drive up the cost of health care and run good docs out of the system. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand the effect of junk lawsuits. You see, docs who are threatened and are constantly sued, even though their practice is a good, strong, excellent practice, resort to what's called defensive medicine. They order procedures and tests that may not be needed, but are — provide protection in the court of law. You see, if you think a lawyer is simply fishing for a rich settlement, is constantly looking over your shoulder, you'll end up practicing what's called defensive medicine. Therefore, I view this as a national problem which requires a national solution. We need a system where patients who are harmed have their day in court, where they can collect damages to cover their injuries or recovery or rehabilitation and loss of income. If you've been harmed by a bad doc, you deserve your day in court. Frivolous lawsuits, by the way, that clog the courts, make it very difficult for someone with a legitimate claim to get into the court. (Nov. 25, 2003)
4. The other thing for health care, by the way, is it's very important that we have a society that allows a person to sue a bad doc if they get hurt. But we don't need a society in which there's junk — frivolous lawsuits being filed all the time. (Dec. 1, 2003)
5. One other issue that makes it hard for people to stay working in certain industries is that we got a problem with medical liability. There are junk and frivolous lawsuits which are running good docs out of business. Now, look, any doctor who is a bad doc deserves to be held to task. (Jan. 21, 2004)
6. One of the reasons people are finding their premiums are up, and it's hard to find a doc these days, is because frivolous and junk lawsuits are threatening medicine across the country. And there's a lot of them, people just filing these suits. I call them junk suits because they don't have any merit. Every one of these junk suits that people put out there requires the expenditure of money, which affects consumers. That's you. It affects hospitals. That's you, as well. In order to avoid protracted litigation, those who provide insurance oftentimes just settle the case. You've got these giant judgments looming out there, people say, well, I better just go ahead and settle this, rather than risk a bad jury verdict. That drives up costs, too. People just filing these lawsuits right and left, and it's running up the costs — doctors' premiums, the cost of doing business, they're rising. That makes it hard on the docs. It makes it hard on docs to do what they're called to do, which is to heal lives. This litigation culture puts a sign up there saying, if you come to our state, you're likely to get sued. Who wants to do that? People want to practice medicine. They don't want to spend their time defending themselves in the courthouse because of the frivolous and junk lawsuits that are too prevalent today in America. More than a third of the docs are considering moving out of state. See, that says to me you got a problem here in Arkansas. First of all, we want to make sure the court system is uncluttered. We want to make sure that if a person is injured, they have their day in court. Frivolous and junk lawsuits make it hard for those who get injured to have their day in court, for starters. And, secondly, obviously, if they've been hurt by a bad doc, there needs to be a judgment, and that person needs to be able to recover the cost of their care, the recovery and the economic losses for the rest of their life. Every good doc wants to make sure that the legal system works fairly. Good docs aren't afraid to stand up in a court of law. They just don't want to be run out of business because of these junk lawsuits, just filing suit after suit after suit. (Jan. 26, 2004)
7. Another way to save costs, to stop the rise of the cost of health care, is there for to be rational laws in dealing with doctors. Our legal system is out of control right now. There's just too much litigation. There's frivolous and junk lawsuits all over the country. It's like there's a giant lottery and the lawyers are the only winners. And we're driving good docs out of business. Make no mistake about it, a lot of good docs are stopping to practice medicine because their premiums are going up because of the junk and frivolous lawsuits. And so these lawsuits, which are — people will settle just to get them out of the way — raises costs. (Jan. 28, 2004)
8. We also understand the effects of frivolous and junk lawsuits on our society. For example, in health care. We need to cut down on these frivolous lawsuits, which are running up the cost of medicine. People who have been harmed by a bad doc deserve their day in court. Yet the system should not reward lawyers who are simply fishing for a rich settlement. (Jan. 29, 2004)
9. We pay Medicaid and Medicare and veterans' health care costs, all of which are affected by the practice of defensive medicine as a result of frivolous lawsuits. And so I said, well, let's get to work on this issue. Let's take on the special interests here in Washington, D.C. And Congressman Greenwood stepped up and got a good bill out of the United States Congress. I said, it's a national problem that desires a — needs a national solution. Congressman Greenwood responded. We basically said, if you get hurt by a bad doc, you get paid the economic damages. (Mar. 16, 2004)
10. And finally, one of the reasons why health care costs are on the rise is there are — again, there's too many frivolous and junk lawsuits. There's a lot of docs who practice defensive medicine. (Mar. 24, 2004)
11. Junk and frivolous lawsuits also affect the cost of health care. When you're a doc and you're afraid you're going to get sued, you practice defensive medicine, which runs up the cost to your health care. (May 4, 2004)
12. ***It's very difficult for small businesses to hire new people, because their health care premiums are going up. And one of the reasons why is because there's too many junk lawsuits suing the docs around this country and in this state. (Jul. 9, 2004)
13. Let me tell you what else is a problem — these frivolous and junk lawsuits against the doctors. Listen, if you get hurt, you ought to have your day in court. Make no mistake about it. Nobody is saying you shouldn't. But when there's lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit by some lawyer trying to hit the jackpot, we got a problem, because guess what's happening? These docs are having to pay higher premiums, which means you're having to pay higher rates. And a lot of docs have just had it. (Jul. 14, 2004)
14. Too many junk lawsuits and frivolous lawsuits hurt our docs and hurt our patients. (Aug. 28, 2004)
15. I'll tell you what else you need to do, not only in Ohio, but around the nation. We must stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care and driving docs out of business. (Aug. 28, 2004)
16. In order to make sure there's docs available, we've got to stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of your medicine. (Aug. 28, 2004)
17. These frivolous lawsuits that are being filed against docs are running up your health care costs and are running good docs out of business. (Aug. 30, 2004)
18. We need to stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running good docs out of business and running up the cost of your health care. (Aug. 31, 2004)
19. And to make sure health care is available and affordable, we got to stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running good docs out of business and running your costs up. (Sep. 3, 2004)
20. We need to do something about these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of your health care and running good docs out of business. (Sep. 6, 2004)
21. I'm telling you, too many good docs are getting sued time and time and time again by frivolous lawsuits. (Sep. 7, 2004)
22. To make sure health care is available and affordable, we've got to do something about these junk lawsuits that are running docs out of business and running up the cost of your health care. (Sep. 7, 2004)
23. That's what docs are having to do all over this country. No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit in America. These frivolous lawsuits are running up the cost of your health care. They're making it harder for good docs to practice medicine. (Sep. 7, 2004)
24. These frivolous lawsuits are making it awfully hard for a lot of docs to practice medicine. (Sep. 9, 2004)
25. Make no mistake about it — these frivolous lawsuits are running good docs out of practice, and are making the practice of medicine more costly. (Sep. 10, 2004)
26. Frivolous lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit causes docs to have to practice defensive medicine. (Sep. 10, 2004)
27. We're going to do something about these junk lawsuits that are running good docs out of practice and running up your costs. (Sep. 10, 2004)
28. Make no mistake about it. Junk lawsuits are running up your costs. And make no mistake about it. Too many good docs are being run out of practice. (Sep. 10, 2004)
29. I know in order to make sure we've got good docs practicing medicine, to make sure health care is affordable, we need to stop these junk lawsuits. (Sep. 13, 2004)
30. To make health care available and affordable, we've got to do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of medicine. And those junk lawsuits are running good docs out of practice. If the goal is an available and affordable health care, we've got to do something about lawsuits. Make no mistake about it, these lawsuits are running up your cost of medicine. You ask small business owners, you ask docs what it's like to practice in a litigious society — that means there's a lot of lawsuits. I'm not even a lawyer and I know the word "litigious." (Sep. 13, 2004)
31. Most of all, what we need to do is to make sure that we stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of your medicine and driving good docs out of business. (Sep. 14, 2004)
32. I'll tell you another way to help small businesses afford health care. It's to do something about these junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of medicine and running good docs out of business. (Sep. 16, 2004)
33. One reason why it's hard for small businesses to afford health care, one reason why your health care costs are going up, one reason why docs are becoming less available for people is because these junk lawsuits are beginning to hurt the health care industry significantly. (Sep. 17, 2004)
34. I'll tell you what else needs to happen — I'll tell you what else needs to happen, we've got to stop these frivolous lawsuits that are running good docs out of business. It's an issue in this campaign. Everywhere I go, people understand the high cost of medicine occurs because of these frivolous lawsuits. They also understand they're having trouble finding good docs. (Sep. 20, 2004)
35. And another thing we need to do is we've got to get rid of those frivolous lawsuits that are running good docs out of business and running up the cost of health care. (Oct. 9, 2004)
36. We will make sure that health care is available and affordable by doing something about the junk lawsuits that threaten our docs and running up the cost of medicine. (Oct. 14, 2004)
37. To make sure health care is available and affordable, we've got to do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care. By forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine, medical lawsuits cost the government about 28 billion dollars a year. They cost our nation's economy anywhere from 60 billion dollars to 100 billion dollars a year. They drive up insurance premiums which drive good docs out of practice. (Oct. 15, 2004)
38. To make sure health care is available and affordable, we must do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care and running good docs out of practice. (Oct. 19, 2004)
39. To make sure health care is available and affordable, we will do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care and running good docs out of practice. (Note: This is not the same quote as above - Oct. 19, 2004)
40. To make sure health care is more available and affordable, we've got to do something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of medicine. See, I looked at the cost to the federal government on these lawsuits. Lawsuits cause doctors to have to practice defensive medicine. In other words, they're practicing medicine in anticipation of getting sued because there's so many suits, and that runs up the cost of health care. And the lawsuits run up the cost of premiums for docs, which run good docs out of business. (Oct. 20, 2004)
41. Doctor Linda Barrasse is with us today, a cardiologist. She's got a group practice in Scranton. She's just like the docs I met yesterday in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Doctors are concerned about the quality of health care in Pennsylvania because of all these junk lawsuits. They're running good docs out of practice. (Oct. 22, 2004)
42. Women have to drive miles in order to find a doc. This is not the quality of life that we expect here in America. And it's caused by frivolous lawsuits. Make no mistake about it, it is a legal culture. When you're out rounding up the vote, or if you're listening and trying to determine who you're for, remember the stories up here, remember the stories of good-hearted docs who are worried about practicing their — their skill. (Oct. 22, 2004)
43. I have met too many good docs being run out of practice because of these junk lawsuits. (Oct. 23, 2004)
44. We're going to help patients and doctors everywhere by doing something about these junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of medicine and running good docs out of practice. (Oct. 24, 2004)
45. We will do something about these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care and running good docs out of practice. (Oct. 27, 2004)
46. Do you realize we've got a crisis when it comes to OB/GYNs in America? These good docs who have got the great compassionate job of taking care of young'uns, they're getting run out of business because of frivolous and junk lawsuits. It makes no sense. (Jan. 19, 2006)
47. Another aspect of making sure that medicine is affordable and available is — listen, there's too many lawsuits. I said a startling statistic the other night. Do you realize there are 1,500 counties in America without an OB/GYN? Now, think about that. And the reason why is a lot of good docs are getting run out of practice because of needless lawsuits. It's one thing to make sure that there's justice; it's another thing to have a system that encourages junk lawsuits that are running up your cost of medicine and running good docs out of practice. Congress needs to pass medical liability reform now. (Feb. 2, 2006)
48. If you're worried about affordabilty of health care and availability of health care, then you have got to be concerned about junk lawsuits. You just have to be, because a lot of docs and providers, thinking they're going to get sued, practice what's called defensive medicine. They order tests, they write prescriptions that simply are not necessary, so they can protect themselves from being sued in a court of law by a trial lawyer. That's just a fact of life. ...You're paying it. You're working hard, you're putting money into the — paying your taxes, and 28 billion dollars of those taxes goes to pay for the cost of frivolous and junk lawsuits. As equal — more importantly, in my judgment, actually, is that good docs are leaving the practice of medicine. (Feb. 15, 2006)
49. We've got to do something about these junk lawsuits. I mean, they're running good people out of practice. I said a statistic the other day in the State of the Union that's got to startle you if you're involved with the health care delivery in America. 1,500 counties don't have an OB/GYN because lawsuits have driven a lot of good docs out of those counties. (Feb. 16, 2006)
50. Here's another idea to make sure health care is affordable and available. We got too many junk lawsuits running docs out of business and running up the cost of your medicine. (Apr. 13, 2006)
51. One of the things I learned when I campaigned here was that you had a problem with your doctors — like a real problem. As a matter of fact, I was deeply concerned when I sat down at these roundtables with OB/GYNs to find out what it's like to try to practice medicine in the state of Pennsylvania. You can't have good quality of life if you can't find good docs. And the truth of the matter is, many of your doctors are leaving the state or quitting practice because of the junk and frivolous lawsuits. ...For the sake of good medical care, for the sake of availability and affordability of medicine, we've got to end these frivolous and junk lawsuits that are hurting the people of Pennsylvania. (Aug. 15, 2006)
52. I'll keep working on medical liability reform. Why? To help make health care more affordable. But also, when you've got a lawsuit, it causes good docs to quit the practice of medicine. There are a lot of counties in the country that do not have OB/GYN because these lawsuits have run them out of practice. And it's not right, and it's not fair. And so we need to — need to have the political will in Washington to take on a very powerful lobby, which is the trial lawyers, and prevent these frivolous lawsuits from running up the cost of your medicine, and running good docs out of practice. (Jan. 25, 2007)
53. ***We've got to make sure, if you want health care to be available and affordable, to have good policies that counter this notion of driving good docs out of business. What I'm telling you is there's too many junk lawsuits suing too many doctors, and we need to have medical liability reform in the United States of America. (May 10, 2007)