Posted on 02/09/2010 1:48:28 PM PST by EnderWiggins
This is a personal perspective, but it comes from having worked in Healthcare for more than a quarter century. You want to bring down the cost of healthcare? Start by reigning in the trial lawyers.
It is estimated that about 5% (and that's on the low side) of all medical procedures done in America today are unnecessary but performed specifically as “defensive medicine” to help protect the doctor or hospital from a malpractice lawsuit. Eliminating just that 5% would save $110 billion a year. This does not include any downstream benefit from reduced insurance premiums and litigation costs.
Medical Tort Reform should (IMHO) look something like this:
A. There should be no cap on objective monetary damages associated with actual costs such as ongoing medical care required by the malpractice, loss of income or necessary non-medical accommodations. But these are costs that must be actually identified and accounted for.
B. There absolutely should be a cap on subjective monetary damages associated with pain, suffering, loss of companionship… stuff like that. There is a reason we have such a hard time placing a dollar value on these things; you can't. And expecting an untrained random group of jurors to do a good job here is like rigging the lottery.
C. Punitive “awards” should serve the actual purpose of punishment exclusively. In the practice of medicine, actions that warrant punitive sanction are arguably criminal rather than civil in tone and tint. For the life of me, I have never understood why one person's punishment should enrich anybody else. So no lawyer or plaintiff should ever receive a penny in punitive damages.
If punishment is warranted the bias should be towards disciplinary actions rather than monetary sanctions, up to and including the loss of license and the right to practice medicine. If the acts actually are criminal, then jail time is deserved. But monetary awards… if assessed… should be returned to the health care system, not to plaintiffs or their lawyers. I.e. no third party should be “enriched” by the punishment of a physician or medical facility.
Thoughts?
Rein-in or exterminate?
We need to eliminate medical lawsuits altogether. We need a general fund to compensate victims of real malpractice for real damage, and a believable way to weed out those guilty of malpractice.
Uh...if that’s the case....Obomba FIRST!!!
As a general observation, litigation or the mere threat thereof, imposes huge costs on society. Virtually everything costs more because of it. The heath care arena would be an excellent place to start limiting excessive and frivolous litigation. A proof of concept if you will.
yeah, as if the ambulance-chasers running the Democrat party would ever go for that.
Most medical malpractice cases take place at the state level. Limits at the federal level would have little impact, unless you are also suggesting these limits be imposed upon the states as well.
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
You do realize that punitive damages are where the trial lawyers make their money.
Ergo, eliminating punitive damages would immediately cut down on the ambulance chasers and malpractice lawsuits.
Let's do it.
A doctor could admit freely of an error in these circumstances, instead of doing CYA.
Actually... that’s a great idea.
Trial lawyers always complain that no one would take these cases if they couldn’t make a boatload of money, and therefore real victims would suffer. Well... here you show that those two issues are completely independent of each other.
And what prey tell oh mighty wizard would this so called reform of yours ( on the back of a cocktail naokin no less) do?
Place a cap on malpractice lawsuits. Cap lawyer fees. Allow more doctors to emigrate to this country. Ensure portability of insurance across state lines.
doctor’s protect themselves by doing too many tests and procedures. Because we have become a litigious society people expect no risk and perfect outcomes. Never a good thing
But I'm not talking winning the lottery. What I have in mind would be more like unemployment insurance or worker's comp. Not enough to tempt a lawyer.
meanwhile on the Democrat side, look for the trial lawyers and their minions to go absolutely ape doo-doo over John Murtha being allegedly a victim of medical malpractice.
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