President Bush Wrong Again on Medical Liability
President Bush said in his State of the Union Address on January 31, 2006, that "[a]nd because lawsuits are driving many good doctors out of practice -- leaving women in nearly 1,500 American counties without a single OB/GYN -- I ask the Congress to pass medical liability reform this year."
The American Bar Association sent out a fact sheet the debunks the President's claim. According to data provided by the American Medical Association, the number of OB/GYN doctors has increased steadily over the last 30 years.
Furthermore, The General Accounting Office, the nonpartisen research wing of Congress, noted instances of ER and OB/GYN doctors leaving some rural areas. However, the GAO found these occurrances 'in scattered, often rural, areas where [doctors] identified other long-standing factors [other than malpractice suits] that affect[ed] the availability of services.'
The full fact sheet may be found here.