Citing liability costs, Tom Coburn says he has stopped delivering babies.

by Kristina Rasmussen You may have heard that the Institute is expecting somewhat of a baby boom in coming months. Clearly we didn’t get the “record low birthrate” memo. So it is with sadness that we note Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) — a known friend of the taxpayer and physician — has stopped delivering babies because of liability costs....

by Kristina Rasmussen

You may have heard that the Institute is expecting somewhat of a baby boom in coming months. Clearly we didn’t get the “record low birthrate” memo.

So it is with sadness that we note Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) — a known friend of the taxpayer and physician — has stopped delivering babies because of liability costs.

Senate rules prevented Coburn from outside paid employment, and he worked for free and covered malpractice insurance and administrative expenses. The malpractice insurance costs (about $1,600 per baby) proved to be too high for him to cover out of pocket.

Coburn  said that delivering some 4,000 babies was “one of the best things I did in medicine.”