Jack Ryan on Health Care

Limit frivolous lawsuits to make healthcare affordable

The issue of making health care more affordable, accessible, and portable while improving the quality provided to Illinois citizens is a central issue in this campaign. 26 states have enacted caps on non-economic damages to defend against frivolous lawsuits and protect the quality of their health care systems, including Illinois neighbors Indiana and Wisconsin.

Losing doctors means losing access to quality health care and we need to do something about this crisis. There are Illinois legislators in both parties that agree with me, but so far meaningful tort reform has been bottled up in Illinois. That's why I support HR 4280, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act of 2004, which passed the US House this spring but remains stuck in the US Senate.

We need to incentivize cost-containment on the provider (doctor) side by pursuing meaningful tort reform, including caps on non-economic damages, so that doctors do not practice defensive medicine.

Source: Campaign website, JackRyan2004.com, "On The Issues" Jun 25, 2004

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