President Bush's visit Wednesday to Madison County provided an emotional boost to the medical community of Southern Illinois.

Doctors faced a difficult year in 2004. Physicians, particularly specialists in the fields of neurosurgery and obstetrics, faced soaring costs for medical malpractice insurance coverage.

Bush, in his first presidential trip of the new year, promised hope in 2005, telling the crowd of 1,500, many of them medical professionals, that he will push the Congress to reform federal medical malpractice laws.

"I will expect a bill on my desk and I will sign it," Bush told the cheering crowd gathered in Collinsville.

Among those in the audience were U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, a Collinsville Republican, who has championed tort reform. Also in the crowd was Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, elected in November in an ugly contest in which tort reform, the reputation of the Madison County courts and the need for medical liability reform were key issues.

Bush said the U.S. House of Representatives has been willing to act on medical malpractice reform, but reform measures have been stopped cold in the U.S. Senate.

He urged members of the audience to keep the pressure up on Congress - particularly the U.S. Senate - to act on medical malpractice reform.

The Illinois Legislature debated the issue this past year and got nowhere. The president suggested that perhaps reform will have to come at the federal level and not in the statehouses around the country.

"When I was governor of Texas we took this issue on," he said.

But the action taken in Texas only succeeded in pushing the problem across the border. That is why federal legislation is necessary, the president suggested.

We believe the president is correct. Most of all, the Southern Illinoisans who have been working dutifully on this issue are to be commended that they have captured the president's attention and now have his energies focused on this serious issue.

The president is pushing for limits on non-economic damages sought by plaintiffs' attorneys. This is something the medical community has been seeking for a long time. Hearing the president vow to work for caps on non-economic damages is something physicians have been longing to hear.

In his first term and in the 2004 re-election Bush showed that he is a determined man. He showed that he will take on a tough assignment and see it through.

Now the president has vowed to take on medical malpractice reform.

We in Southern Illinois should be pleased.