Posted on 09/08/2004 11:28:19 PM PDT by kattracks
RICHMOND, Va. - Reining in bad doctors and lawyers who file frivolous claims is the best way to control exorbitant medical malpractice insurance premiums that drive up medical costs, the wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said Wednesday.Elizabeth Edwards told a crowd at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school that President Bush's proposal to reform malpractice laws and cap jury awards won't drive down the cost of malpractice insurance.
"The truth of the matter is ... malpractice insurance is actually not tied so much to what the awards are around the country. It's tied to other things," she said at a town hall-style forum on health care.
She said caps on malpractice awards are not the answer and that Virginia itself - a state which limits malpractice verdicts - proves it.
"As you all see in Virginia it's not solved the problem because insurance premiums have continued to go up despite the fact that you do have caps in this state," Edwards said.
"If in fact there was a correlation between medical malpractice awards and the premium rises, we would be beaten over the head with those numbers, but there is not. And there are a number of ways you can know that," she said.
Edwards said premiums are higher in states that cap malpractice damage awards (an average of $40,000 a year) than in states that don't (an average of $35,000 a year), Edwards said.
Lawyers also share responsibility for runaway malpractice premiums, said Edwards.
Edwards is herself a lawyer and wife of one of North Carolina's most successful plaintiffs' attorneys from 1977 to 1998, when John Edwards ran for the Senate.
"Their responsibility is for the frivolous cases that are filed in this country, and there are a lot of frivolous cases. Sen. Kerry and Sen. Edwards want to make sure that we rout out those cases by punishing the lawyers who file them," she said.
Similarly, doctors should police their ranks better for shoddy practitioners, Edwards said. "Half of the malpractice in this country is practiced by 5 percent of the doctors," she said.
State Republican Party spokesman Shawn M. Smith said Kerry and Edwards have consistently opposed fixing the nation's medical liability system.
"Medical lawsuits cost Americans $108 billion each year, and John Kerry is on record as opposing medical liability reform at least 10 times," Smith said.
and she is married to John Edwards who made millions filing frivolous claims?
O.B gyns are becoming scarce in Illinois thanks to the law and guys like Edwards who are protecting us from those evil doctors.
Sounds to me like she's keeping her husband's employment options open.
bad doctors are about a zillionth as big a problem as bad lawyers.
Yeh sure.
horseshit
I am sitting here wondering why this woman wasn't struck dead by lighning when she said this.
but bad juries and an even worse media are their enablers.
Naw too easy. LOL
She could start in her home and with her "friends".
bad juries wouldn't be a problem without the ambulance chasing pond scum to take advantage of them.
Pesky facts.
I'd sure like to punish her husband.
Look, honey, the BEST exercise in the world is to join your hubby in chasing ambulances...but how about you do it on foot, ok?
God on a pogo stick. If these people were any more transparent they could be used for Saran Wrap.
Well, prsumably, a wife is loyal to her husbanc. This presumption, however, does not disqualify her from being a completely useless nattering twit.
Sigh...
1) Just what do they teach in journalism school? It's obviously not grammar or writing, or else it wouldn't be impossible to find copy editors. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a hint: Look at how that sentence begins and ends.)
2) Leaving grammar aside, think about the logic of the little missus' argument. Places where malpractice insurance is expensive cap damage awards, therefore award caps don't work? That's like saying that since most dieters are fat, diets don't work.
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