High medical liability insurance premiums are threatening the stability of our nation’s health care delivery system. These rates are forcing many doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers to move out of high-liability states, limit the scope of their practices, and even close their doors permanently. The crisis is affecting more and more patients and is threatening access to reliable quality healthcare services in many states across our country.

Because of unaffordable medical liability insurance premiums, it is now common for obstetricians to no longer deliver babies and for other specialists to no longer provide emergency calls or provide certain high-risk procedures. Some emergency departments have even been forced to temporarily shut down in recent years. In my home state of Nevada, our Level I trauma center closed for 10 days in 2002. This closure left every patient within a 10,000 square mile area unserved by a Level I trauma center. 

More than 35 percent of neurosurgeons have altered their emergency or trauma call coverage because of the medical liability crisis. This means that patients with head injuries or in need of neurosurgical services must be transferred to other facilities, delaying much-needed care. Women's health care is also in serious jeopardy. It is a story that is being repeated all over America—OB/GYNs leaving the state, retiring, or limiting their services. The bottom line is that patients cannot get the health care they need when they need it most, and that is a medical crisis. This crisis is affecting more and more patients, and it is threatening access to care.

Senator Ensign introduced the Medical Care Access Protection Act to address the national crisis our doctors, hospitals, and those needing health care face today. His legislation is a comprehensive medical liability reform measure that sets reasonable limits on noneconomic damages, while also providing for unlimited economic damages.

Without federal legislation, the exodus of these providers from the practice of medicine will continue, and patients will find it increasingly difficult to obtain needed care. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue; this is a patient issue. We need to secure patient access to quality healthcare services when they need it most.