Tort$ are not pastries

Campus Report ^ | October 14, 2009 | Allie Winegar Duzett

[bs9021]

Tort$ are not pastries

by: Allie Winegar Duzett, October 14, 2009

With politicians and protesters right and left screaming about Obama’s proposed health care reform, Bill Batchelder and Lawrence J. McQuillan have another idea: focusing on tort reform instead. This was the idea investigated at a recent Heritage Foundation forum entitled Tort Reform in the States: Protecting Consumers and Enhancing Economic Growth.

In introducing the panel speakers, Hans van Spakovsky of Heritage briefly discussed some of the problems relating to tort. The American tort system, he related, cost two-hundred and fifty-two billion dollars in 2007—or about one thousand dollars per American citizen. He pointed out that defensive medicine (the practice of needless medical testing to avoid future lawsuits) cost between 84 and 151 billion dollars. He also noted that doctors are found not negligent in ninety percent of malpractice cases, but that even when a doctor is found not negligent, it still costs them even hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it through the lawsuit. These are just some of the reasons why tort matters.

The Honorable Bill Batchelder was first to speak. Batchelder is currently the Minority Leader in the Ohio House of Representatives.....

[parsifal]

OMG. Tort reform rears its ugly head again.

Here’s the numbers again: Less than 1/2 of 1 percent of total healthcare costs. Within the article, I think page 3 or 4, is a link to an article by Dr. Gawande, who went to Texas to see why their health care costs had not gone down after passing tort reform legislation.

http://www.centerjd.org/air/TrueRiskF.pdf

Other question you need to address is “How much malpractice is going on, and who is going to pay for the sick and maimed and killed people?”

We can put them on welfare and medicaid if you all like...

parsy, who says what a non-issue and what a bunch of demagoguery by a bunch of know-nothings and why come you never see any of these articles mention the actual amount of money spent on payouts to lawyers and their clients??? (I’ll give you a hint-—we spend about 8 times as much on bank overdraft fees)

[jagusafr]

The percentage of payouts doesn’t keep the professional liability insurance companies from making it prohibitively expensive for any specialist to get insurance. Here in Texas, my b-i-l (a family practitioner) pays over $25,000.00 per year in premiums, and he’s never had a claim. The OB/Gyns can pay $200,000.00/yr. Disgraceful.

Colonel, USAFR

[parsifal]

Well then why are you blaming lawyers and torts? Texas went whole hog and passed a “tort reform” bill about 4 or 5 years ago. The better answer might be the “insurance cycle” that is explained in that link I gave. Or greedy insurance companies.Or, just doctors who screw up too much.

And, FWIW, I agree that $200,000 is an insane amount but I don’t think it is runaway torts, which it never was anyway, particularly, since Texas has pretty much decided to go doo-doo on the killed and maimed in favor of the doctors.

parsy, who suggests you read the link

[jagusafr]

I don’t think I was blaming the lawyers (I am one). I was noting that the insurance companies take advantage of the “trial lawyers” bogeyman to jack up rates. I will note, however (former medical malpractice defense lawyer and hospital attorney that I am), that in my experience, a large majority of medical malpractice cases are without merit, ignore the informed consent document the patient signed, seek compensation for bad outcomes (which are not in and of themselves actionable) and ask for too damn much money in “pain & suffering” and exemplaries, even with the cap.

Colonel, USAFR

[parsifal]

Oh no! There is a tale around Little Rock about an insurance lawyer that quit after about 10 years when he realized one day that he no longer had a heart and didn’t believe in pain and suffering. Don’t know what state you practice, but in Arkansas no one hardly touches medmals because of the costs and difficulty of winning. Must have your affidavit before filing complaint. Medmals are specialty work here. Plus, they drag on for friggin years.

From what I have seen, many real true victims just have to suck it up. The pain and suffering is where the plaintiff’s lawyer gets paid, since by definition, all else is compensatory.

parsy, who says congrats on leaving the Dark Side