Bush's Next Target: Malpractice Lawyers

NY Times ^ | 2.27.2005 | Steve Lohr

[OKIEDOC]

It's always follow the money trail.

The New York Slimes is nothing more than a shill for the Dimoratic party propaganda organ.

I put the front page of the NYT on the bottom of my rat cage and the rats died of constipation. This goes to show just how much respect rats have for their brother DimoRats.

[manic4organic]

I'd prefer the IRS first, but ok. I'll take this.

[Last Dakotan]

No, you misunderstood me. By breaking off doctors from the rest of society and solving their malpractice problems the effect will be to take off some of the pressure for system-wide legal reform.

[I_dmc]

The absolute worst effect that is rarely mentioned, which I first heard mentioned by a politician when GWB mentioned it, is the cost of defensive medicine. Every single aspect of health care is affected by the drive to lessen the chance of a lawsuit, meaning numerous tests that aren't needed to diagnose, only to protect providers.

[ohioWfan]

Absolutely, and thus driving health care costs through the roof because of all the unnecessary tests the Dr's have to order to try to prevent lawsuits.

Good job, President Bush! Keep at it!

[staytrue]

Medical liability policy, said Dr. William M. Sage, a physician and a law professor at Columbia University, should seek three goals: restraining overall costs, compensating the victims of medical mistakes and providing incentives for doctors and hospitals to reduce medical errors

How about this. Medical providers will have 2 prices. Price number 1 is what you pay if you waive your rights to sue. Price number 2 is what you pay if you keep your rights to sue. Plus, you can also opt for price numer 1 and buy "bad outcome insurance" (basically no fault insurance), which pays regardless of fault but only on a bad outcome with the price of insurance based on payout selected.

I would always take option 1. The few times I've been the the hospital, they tested me for all kinds of crap that I could possibly have but almost certainly did not. It was a was of money and a waste of my time.

I do think this would reduce costs, compensate victims, and put every medical trial lawyer in the country out of work.

[FormerACLUmember]

"Reform" is absolutely essential.

However, Bush's reforms will not easily repair the massive damage done by the Trial Lawyer Industry to our nation's emergency rooms and trauma care centers.

[gusopol3]

Bush is going to the Toons' political bag of tricks with this-- it's called voter suppression. Just as toon's first political act was to broaden federal abortion coverage in order to attempt to discourage and demoralize the religious right, "our representatives can't even prevent this from happening to us, " so Bush attempts to school the Dems and their core support.

[Tall_Texan]

Cry me a river. For every sob story the trial lawyers want to bring up, there are probably 100s of cases where doctors and nurses are harassed into paying exhorbitant fees just to fend off some frivolous case.

The trial lawyers have practically made the OB/GYN practice extinct.

We need to bring common sense back into this and the first step is to let doctors be doctors instead of pinatas for trail lawyers.

[paulk]

Watch this - it is just lip service - this bill isn't going anywhere. An why only go after the medical end? They are doing to small business what they did to doctors in the '80s and '90s.

[FormerACLUmember]

The problem is that the emergency rooms of the US are essentially going out of business under attack by Trial Lawyer Inc. It is a public health crisis created by an out of control corrupt shyster industry.

[NYC GOP Chick]

One has to wonder how that will affect the attorney's votes in 2008. There are a large wealthy lobby.

As a group, the trial lawyers are already the largest (and most aggressive) donors to the dems.