WASHINGTON -- Lobbyist Thomas H. Boggs Jr. pulled off last week another of the deft moves that have earned him the reputation of being one of the best in town at what he does.
Mr. Boggs, the top special pleader for the nation's trial lawyers, not only broke the momentum of a campaign by doctors to enact federal limits on money awarded in medical malpractice cases. He also went one giant step further.
Maneuvering behind the scenes, Mr. Boggs won language in House and Senate versions of health care reform that threatens to overturn state limits on malpractice awards that have existed for years in Maryland and 20 other states.
"It was so greedy, so overdone, so invasive of the prerogatives of 50 years of state law in this area, I was astonished," said Frederick H. Graefe, who lobbies opposite Mr. Boggs on behalf of the doctors, hospitals and insurance companies that seek federal help in cutting their losses in malpractice cases.
Mr. Graefe was also unabashedly in awe of his competitor.
This is a classic example of how Washington works, a tale of how a well connected insider -- the son of two former members of Congress who helps distribute millions in campaign contributions to friendly lawmakers -- can run a legislative train right off the tracks.
Consumer advocates tend to side with lawyers because lawyers give patients recourse against physicians whose incompetence can ruin lives. But some patients are also the victims of lawyers whose fees claim up to 50 percent of awarded damages or who won't take cases if there isn't enough money in it for them.
Doctors are not without money and influence, either. The American Medical Association has anted up nearly $1 million for the 1994 elections, about equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. That's nearly as much as the Association of American Trial Lawyers of America, which Mr. Boggs represents, gave, mostly to Democrats.
The intrigue isn't over yet. House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt hinted Friday that he is likely to undo some of Mr. Boggs' handiwork next week before the final version of his bill goes to the full House.
"They went too far," a House leadership aide who is working with Mr. Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat, said of Mr. Boggs' move to overturn the state limits on malpractice awards along with wiping out the proposed federal limits.
