Sen. Mike Lee Slams Obamacare AND Federal Tort Reform

On November 11, Sen. Mike Lee gave a speech to the Federalist Society National Conv... in which he explained that he wouldn't vote for a Senate Republican jobs bill because it included a section imposing federal limits on awards in medical malpractice lawsuits (the Senate version of H.R. 5, passed by the House last week).

Sen. Lee discussed the Obamacare case on Fox Business Network yesterday, and he used the opportunity to again make the link between Obamacare and federal tort reform, as many conservatives and libertarians have done in criticizing H.R. 5. The anchor didn't ask for his views on federal tort reform; the Senator volunteered the comparison. Here is the pertinent excerpt, from a transcript provided by Congressional Quarterly:

Decisions like this, gut-wrenching difficult decisions about health care reform, are made by states. They ought to be made by states. It's the states that license doctors and nurses and hospitals and clinics. It's the states that license and regulate health care, health insurance companies. It's the states that come up with the system of tort laws that govern medical malpractice lawsuits.

So states control all these drivers of health care costs. It's entirely appropriate for states to engage in more comprehensive types of reform.

Now, a state like mine, Utah, isn't going to make the same decisions that a state like Massachusetts or Vermont might make, and thank heaven for that. But there is a fundamental difference between what happens when a state does this as compared to when Congress does it.

Now if only Sen. Lee's Republican colleagues will listen to him...

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Comment by Dagny T. on March 29, 2012 at 10:27am: Socialist indoctrination! It's what government schools do. Good Catholics that's what Catholic schools make. Good Jews, that's what Jewish schools make. Why is it so hard for people to understand all this government control garbage is being pushed by ,now adults, kids that were indoctrinated in the government schools to be good, compliant, pro-government, non uppity subjects rather than self sufficient, thinking, individual citizens?Government schools are the source of the problem!

The men that founded and framed our country were NOT government educated. Get rid of government schools! It's not in the Constitution, anyway.

Comment by David DeGerolamo on March 28, 2012 at 3:18pm

Comment by Thomas Angle on March 28, 2012 at 3:14pm: What is happening to the U.S.?

It is called a communist takeover.

Comment by Concerned citizen on March 28, 2012 at 3:12pm: Our freedoms are slowing being taken from us....the GOP seems to have gone left now. What is happening to the U.S.? Even some Tea Party members are no longer standing up.....maybe they like being a part of the Washington in-crowd........sad, isn't it?

Comment by Debrajoe Smith-Beatty on March 28, 2012 at 2:46pm: Interesting.

Comment by NWBill on March 28, 2012 at 2:31pm: I fully agree with the Senator; if you believe in the 10th Amendment at all, you would, too. Tort reform - in general, and specifically in healthcare - should take place at the state level. The government is not qualified for it (as its' not qualified for most things), and, if states that cap malpractice judgments wind up having a lot of doctors (and most of the best ones) migrate to them because of this decision to do so, well, that's the way it works. It's free market capitalism, nothing else.

It's also, in that case, something voters in each state can decide for themselves ... which, again, is a good thing, because the government would just muck it up.

Comment by Thomas on March 28, 2012 at 2:27pm: There is a fundamental difference between an actual functioning republic and a republic in name only.