Posted on 08/29/2009 5:09:46 AM PDT by reaganaut1
We've always suspected that fear of angering trial lawyers was the only reason President Obama refused to embrace tort reform as a crucial part of achieving his goal of reduced health care costs. Now we know for sure. A moment of candor by Howard Dean, the former chairman of the DNC and an enthusiastic backer of Obama's health reform initiative, confirmed our suspicions. "The reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on," Dean said at a town hall meeting in Virginia last week.
So much for Obama's insistence that cutting costs is dear to his heart. He's rejected, for purely political reasons, one of the most effective tools for containing medical costs. It would upset a special interest group--well-heeled plaintiff's lawyers--that is one of the biggest funders of the Democratic party.
Yet tort reform remains a key to paring costs. The president can make a stab at directly cutting back spending on health care, but that's bound to add to the political unpopularity of Obamacare and is unlikely to pass even an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress. In particular, shrinking Medicare spending is a nonstarter, given the furious opposition of seniors.
Tort reform, in contrast, has the advantage of being popular. It would put sensible limits on medical malpractice lawsuits that have flooded the courts and forced doctors to practice "defensive" medicine. Studies of the effects of such medicine put its price tag at a minimum of $100 billion a year and probably more than $200 billion.
In a study last year by the Massachusetts Medical Society, 83 percent of doctors reported they practiced defensive medicine.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
It is the legal system and the lack of accountability and transparency.
The legal system in America is broken and corrupt.
Lawyers run the White House, Senate and Congress, and are proven greedy, stupid,
and ignore any, and every, law which happens to be inconveniently in their own way.
Lawyers designed the olde "health" program (the 'pyramid of food') that led to American obesity. Enough, already
[Lawyers also make sure no one will never see the undocumented Pres_ _ent's BC. Convenient?] Self-serving? You betcha. ]
Now there's an interesting question.
Who exactly wrote this 1,000 page monstrosity?
It’s not just the Trial Lawyers - although they do make a nice bogeyman....
Tort reform would have the effect of reining in the courts, which have been a powerful weapon in advancing Liberal causes and power, often over the interests of the people and legislations by our elected representatives....
No Liberal will willingly give that power up, even in the slightest degree....
I have trusted no lawyer since. I will not vote for a lawyer.
Senator Edwards, the Senate's Breeder of illegitimate children, made his fortune suing doctors and hospitals.
How can anyone look up to a lawyer?
Fred is not overly constrained by reality. Trial lawyers are among the Dems most generous campaign contributors. Tort reform is unthinkable to the Dems at the moment, which means that continued defensive medicine and obscene liability insurance rates for doctors will be with us for the foreseeable future. Poor Barack: he’s bitten the nose of a monster big enough to eat him.
You think at some point a well-hung Pubbie would call out Obama on exactly why he is putting concern for the ATLA ahead of concerns for the American people........crickets.
When the Government runs it...you won’t be able to sue. The idiot lawyers ought to be able to figure that out.
Wow! Good point...
Sixteen months after Texans approved a constitutional amendment to cap noneconomic damages in medical liability suits, the health care community has little doubt that the measure—Proposition 12—is making a difference where it counts: in lowering malpractice premium rates and reducing the number of lawsuits being filed.
In response to the ballot's passage, for instance, the state's largest professional liability carrier, Texas Medical Liability Trust, reduced its rates by 12%, then dropped them another 5%. A member survey by the Texas Hospital Association (THA) found that members' malpractice liability premiums dropped 8% in 2004 and could fall another 17% this year.
And last August, the Texas Hospital Association reported a 70% reduction in the number of lawsuits being filed against the state's hospitals. Analysts also point to the reform's more subtle effects, saying that the exodus of both physicians and insurance carriers from the state has stopped and may even be reversing.
http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2005/01/tortreform.htm
Come on, you can’t call all lawyer’s dishonest. I have a trial lawyer friend who is also a judge, and the most ethical person I have ever known. He is truly a man of G-d. To make it a blanket condemnation is patently unfair. I know the feeling well, since I am in the oil business, and I am far from the picture that the average person paints.
A lawyer doesn’t have to be dishonest to go after all he can get for his client. Trial lawyers are footsoldiers for their clients.
The question is why are such huge amounts of money awarded for the damages. Do juries make the call? How powerful an influence are the results of prior cases? It’s logical that trial lawyers would try to block capping laws. That’s fine. Forces powerful enough to overcome that opposition can be marshalled, as has happened in Texas.
If they can do it then it can be done elsewhere. State by state would be fine; it doesn’t need to be in federal legislation.
We are now seeing the “power of the people”. Already the entrenched politicians have been surprised. We’re seeing the American system of government at its best. The only cause for alarm would be if citizens reverted back their low profile.
Wrong. Fail. Foolish.
TORT REFORM FIRST
TORT REFORM ONLY
TORT REFORM NOW
Forget anything else. Tort reform must be done SEPARATELY from anything else. It is the major problem with our health care system right now. Somewhere on the order of 10% of costs, and probably more, are due to lawsuit and lawsuit prevention.
The tort reform should be whacked out immediately, and in a short, understandable bill that EVERYONE in the House and Senate can read before voting on. Certainly there are bills already prepared during that past ten years that can be immediately brought to the floor.
AFTER tort reform is passed, CHILL OUT A YEAR or so and see what that does in the health care system. We know it will free up doctors’ time and laboratory time and allow other patients to get in more easily. It will allow insurance companies to lower premiums, doctors/ hospitals to lower bills, and other costs may come down a tad due to lack of pressure on supply.
Next year, look at another small chunk of the situation. There is NO reason to do everything in a HUGE bill that NO ONE can have any idea of the consequences, either long term or short term.
TORT REFORM FIRST is the place to start, and to do it separately and IMMEDIATELY.
Ambulance chasing trial lawyers have absolutely no conscious or morals when it comes to filing frivolous lawsuits. Just look at the number of adds that these bastards have on television fishing for people that they can get “awards” for because of a possible reaction to a medication. No wonder medications are so expensive. What do you call a hundred trial lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean——A good start.
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