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Bush Campaign Ads . . . Brought to You by Special Interests
As President Bush's $10.5 million campaign ad blitz begins, Public Citizen released a report outlining who helped pay for the campaign ads and what favors they have received during his presidency.
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No Child Left Behind? The Funding Gap in ESEA and Other Federal Education Programs
The current reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), raises high expectations for achievement and imposes stringent measures of accountability on students, teachers, and schools.
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July 6, 2004
Bush & Cheney Mislead on Tort Reform
President Bush and Vice President Cheney continue to dishonestly claim that trial lawyers are to blame for skyrocketing health care costs. President Bush said Friday that "frivolous lawsuits...run up the cost of medicine" and that solutions to health care problems were stopped in Congress "because the trial lawyers are powerful in the Senate."1 Similarly, Cheney said last week that "medical liability reform" is the key to "control the cost of health care."2 But, according to undisputed government and academic data, lawsuits have little -- if anything -- to do with health care costs.
According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), costs from malpractice lawsuits represent less than 2%3 of the nation's total health care spending, and the tort reform legislation pushed by President Bush would reduce health insurance premiums by less than one-half of one percent.4 While President Bush has claimed that lawsuits cause "docs to practice medicine in an expensive way5 in order to protect themselves in the courthouse," a study by the Harvard University School of Public Health "did not find a strong relationship between the threat of litigation and medical costs." Additionally, a study in the Journal of Health Economics6 compared medical costs in states with limits on lawsuits to states without limits and found only tiny savings - less than three-tenths of one percent. In all, CBO reported "no statistically significant difference in per capita health care spending between states with and without limits on malpractice torts."7
The White House's insistence on pushing the trial lawyer myths are designed to obscure its record in other areas that would seriously reduce health care costs. For instance, the Bush Administration's recently-passed Medicare bill specifically prohibited Medicare from negotiating lower prescription drug prices from large pharmaceutical companies.8 Similarly, industry studies have found that widespread adoption of the President's Health Care Savings Accounts "could drive up the annual deductible paid by workers."9
Sources:
- Remarks by President Bush on the Economy, PRNewswire.com, 7/02/04.
- "Cheney rallies the faithful at Wheeling bus tour stop," Observer-Reporter, 7/04/2004.
- "Economic and Budget Issue Brief: Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice," Congressional Budget Office, 1/08/04.
- "President Bush's Rhetoric on Medical Malpractice Doesn't Match Reality," DPC.Senate.gov.
- Presidential Remarks, WhiteHouse.gov, 1/26/04.
- "President Uses Dubious Statistics on Costs of Malpractice Lawsuits," FactCheck.org, 1/29/04.
- Ibid.
- "Bush Admits Drug Card Concerns," Washington Post, 6/15/04.
- "Out of pocket costs may soar," USA Today, 4/25/2004.
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