. $100 billion of an additional cost, and that's according to economist daniel b. kessler and mark b. mccelland. trial lawyers have not been asked as others to lower health care costs much we know there's a lot of arm twisting going on in washington, hospitals, drugmakers, insurers, and others, have all been asked to pitch in and make a commitment to help. but so far there's one constituency that has not been asked for one dime, than is the trial lawyers. they have not been asked to step up and take one for the team. medical liability can -- reform can lower costs while expanding access to care and i would respectfully suggest to my colleagues this they just look to the experiment we have recently conducted in the state of texas. a successful experiment to increase access and lower costs. texas illustrates both the problem and the solution. in the early part of the decade texas was a trial lawyer's dream and a doctor's night mairmt our state had become -- nightmare. our state had become a haven for medical malpractice lawsuits. medical malpractice insurance doubled and man