Posted on 03/04/2003 6:41:46 AM PST by TroutStalker
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:48:20 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Democrats in Washington have long stymied medical malpractice reform at the behest of their check-writing supporters in the plaintiffs' bar. But maybe these politicians should look at a new poll that suggests they are out of step with the views of their own party's rank-and-file.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Unbelievable.
About all I can think right now?
..."beware of Greeks bearing gifts."
No pictures, Please!
No pictures, no peace.
But note this: in the state that has so many other economic woes, California, the cap on non-medical damages has been set at $250,000, and the malpractice insurance costs have been largely contained. The Democrats in California have benefitted indirectly, both as voters and as the party that controls very nearly everything at a state level. The tort lawyers, if they just went low-key, could probably overcome the objections raised by the voters that turned to Republicans for tort reform, and they would then (possibly) migrate back to the Democrats, as they have in California. Medical care in California is probably one of the better bargains available in that state, partly because of the lowered premiums on medical malpractice insurance, attributable directly to the cap on non-medical damages, and also the number of cases which are adjudicated out-of-court by arbitration, that never come before a jury.
This probably is what resuscitated the otherwise moribund Democrats in that state, in an election that common sense and the conventional wisdom said, they should have lost.
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