RollCall reports on the push to make medical malpractice reform part of the overall health reform legislation:

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s markupof health care legislation is just the latest skirmish in what has beena long-standing partisan battle — the fight to change medicalmalpractice laws. The issue has long been a fixture of legislativefights over health care policy….

Republicans have long argued that the systemis weighted against doctors. They say that limitless damage awards leadto crushing insurance costs for doctors, who pass them along topatients, and that physicians are practicing defensive medicine, whichdrives up health care costs through unnecessary treatments. Sen. JuddGregg (R-N.H.) argues that reforming this system will help drive downhealth care costs and expand coverage.  “We cannot possibly reduce the cost of health care in this country without reducing defensive medicine,” he said….

Democratsreject this argument, countering that the current system is necessaryto protect patients from medical mistakes that can cause themirreparable harm.  “I honestly really don’t see this as a healthcare issue,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). Instead, theSenator, a former Rhode Island attorney general, argued that medicalmalpractice is more of an “intruder” into the debate to protectinsurance companies, hospitals and doctors from being accountable fortheir mistakes….
Someobservers say the American Medical Association and other doctors’groups could put pressure on Democrats to accept some sort of reform inexchange for their support of health reform. However, Gregg said,“Medical providers have never been able to organize enough of anoffensive” to force change.

A Republican Senate aide agreed. Ifthe reform bill includes changes to medical malpractice, it willinfuriate trial attorneys. A better way to go might be to focus onchanging doctors’ Medicare reimbursement rates, the aide said. Doctorshave also fought to increase these rates and, unlike tort reform, thereis no powerful lobby opposing that issue….

However, the White House has shown somewillingness to explore the issue. Obama told AMA members in June thatsome medical malpractice reforms were necessary as part of healthreform.

“I recognize that it will be hard to make some of thesechanges if doctors feel like they’re constantly looking over theirshoulders for fear of lawsuits,” Obama said.

Meanwhile, the AMA is moderating its goals for reform beyond caps on damages, given Democratic control of Congress….