Posted on 08/21/2009 7:14:29 AM PDT by DogBarkTree
President Obama's health care "reform" plan has met with significant criticism across the country. Many Americans want change and reform in our current health care system. We recognize that while we have the greatest medical care in the world, there are major problems that we must face, especially in terms of reining in costs and allowing care to be affordable for all. However, as we have seen, current plans being pushed by the Democratic leadership represent change that may not be what we had in mind -- change which poses serious ethical concerns over the government having control over our families’ health care decisions. In addition, the current plans greatly increase costs of health care, while doing lip service toward controlling costs.
We need to address a REAL bipartisan reform proposition that will have REAL impacts on costs, and quality of patient care.
As Governor of Alaska, I learned a little bit about being a target for frivolous suits and complaints (Please, do I really need to footnote that?). I went my whole life without needing a lawyer on speed-dial, but all that changes when you become a target for opportunists and people with no scruples. Our nation’s health care providers have been the targets of similar opportunists for years, and they too have found themselves subjected to false, frivolous, and baseless claims. To quote a former president, “I feel your pain.”
So what can we do? First, we cannot have health care reform without tort reform. The two are intertwined. For example, one supposed justification for socialized medicine is the high cost of health care. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently noted, “If Mr. Obama is serious about lowering costs, he'll need to reform the economic structures in medicine—especially programs like Medicare.” [1] Two examples of these “economic structures” are high malpractice insurance premiums foisted on physicians (and ultimately passed on to consumers as “high health care costs”) and the billions wasted on defensive medicine.
Dr. Stuart Weinstein, with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, recently explained the problem:
”The medical liability crisis has had many unintended consequences, most notably a decrease in access to care in a growing number of states and an increase in healthcare costs. Access is affected as physicians move their practices to states with lower liability rates and change their practice patterns to reduce or eliminate high-risk services. When one considers that half of all neurosurgeons—as well as one third of all orthopedic surgeons, one third of all emergency physicians, and one third of all trauma surgeons—are sued each year, is it any wonder that 70 percent of emergency departments are at risk because they lack available on-call specialist coverage?” [2]
Dr. Weinstein makes good points, points completely ignored by President Obama. Dr. Weinstein details the costs that our out-of-control tort system are causing the health care industry and notes research that “found that liability reforms could reduce defensive medicine practices, leading to a 5 percent to 9 percent reduction in medical expenditures without any effect on mortality or medical complications.” Dr. Weinstein writes:
“If the Kessler and McClellan estimates were applied to total U.S. healthcare spending in 2005, the defensive medicine costs would total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year. Add to this the cost of defending malpractice cases, paying compensation, and covering additional administrative costs (a total of $29.4 billion). Thus, the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year in healthcare costs simply to cover the costs of defensive medicine. Excessive litigation and waste in the nation’s current tort system imposes an estimated yearly tort tax of $9,827 for a family of four and increases healthcare spending in the United States by $124 billion. How does this translate to individuals? The average obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) delivers 100 babies per year. If that OB-GYN must pay a medical liability premium of $200,000 each year (which is the rate in Florida), $2,000 of the delivery cost for each baby goes to pay the cost of the medical liability premium.” [3]
You would think that any effort to reform our health care system would include tort reform, especially if the stated purpose for Obama’s plan to nationalize our health care industry is the current high costs.
So I have new questions for the president: Why no legal reform? Why continue to encourage defensive medicine that wastes billions of dollars and does nothing for the patients? Do you want healthcare reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?
Many states, including my own state of Alaska, have enacted caps on lawsuit awards against health care providers. Texas enacted caps and found that one county’s medical malpractice claims dropped 41 percent, and another study found a “55 percent decline” after reform measures were passed. [4] That’s one step in health care reform. Limiting lawyer contingency fees, as is done under the Federal Tort Claims Act, is another step. The State of Alaska pioneered the “loser pays” rule in the United States, which deters frivolous civil law suits by making the loser partially pay the winner’s legal bills. Preventing quack doctors from giving “expert” testimony in court against real doctors is another reform. Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that, after his state enacted tort reform measures, the number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas “skyrocketed by 57 percent” and that the tort reforms “brought critical specialties to underserved areas.” These are real reforms that actually improve access to health care. [5]
Dr. Weinstein’s research shows that around $200 billion per year could be saved with legal reform. That’s real savings. That’s money that could be used to build roads, schools, or hospitals. If you want to save health care, let’s listen to our doctors too. There should be no health care reform without legal reform. There can be no true health care reform without legal reform.
- Sarah Palin
And how is that any different from you "stalking" Palin threads to tell any and all that you don't like Palin, or Palin's not smart, or Palin can't speak, or Palin can't write, etc., etc.
If you dislike Palin so much, why wouldn't you just ignore threads about Palin and get on with your life?
Woke up on the wrong side of ya bed this morning huh?
The fact that people have been “working on” tort reform for 20 years, does not in the least make tort reform any less vital, if we are to reform healthcare in this country. Doctors in this country are STILL suffering from frivolous lawsuits and something akin to terrorist tactics from ambulance chasing lawyer vermin, who have the Democratic Party in their pockets.
It's like saying we have been fighting against drugs for decades and it's nothing new, so therefore no one should talk about it, despite the serious problems with illegal drugs we have in this country.
The point is, I am yet to hear our so-called Republican Pary “leaders” like McCain, or even the RNC Chairman, Steele, come out and forcefully demand that 0bama fix tort reform before trying to fix healthcare, in this current debate, because most of the “problems” with healthcare in this country, can be traced straight to the ambulance chasing vermin that prey on everybody.
You seem to be out to be creating your own “issue” then arguing with the issue that you created yourself. For starters no one has even come close to claiming that Gov Palin invented tort reform, yet you make that up, then attack it yourself.
Sounds like you need to find some more useful way to spend your life to me, instead of arguing with stuff that you just made up.
Outstanding. Putting the focus on tort reform is overdue.
Please re-read that passage. No where does she say the roads, schools or hospitals have to use tax payers money. These could just as well be private roads, private schools, and private hospitals.
Perhaps your bias is clouding your reading comprehension. She didn't write it, but you thought it.
OK, as you pointed out California has a hugh and series additional problem, massive leeching by uninsured illegales, which is not seen to a similar extent in any other state. I think you answered the question why lawsuit reform alone is not a panacea for California. Whether it helps elsewhere is not addressed.
Are malpractice insurance firms good investment vehicles? The market ought to be answering the allegation that these are cash cows.
Give me a break..
Nobody supports Mitt. He’s an idiot and a RINO to boot.
In Britain’s lovely NHS you can sue... judgments are paid from the treasury i.e. taxpayer.
# 1. She also sited what they did in Alaska for tort reform with her help.
# 2. While we have had some successes in some states,
tort reform never got enough traction to actually stop frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits across all states in the country, nor did the successes for tort reform go far enough. The fight for tort reform is far from over.
# 3. We are right now fighting against 0bama’s nasty healthcare bill. Tort reform is one of the biggest weapons to be used against 0bamacare, because the # 1 reason why health costs are super high in this country, is because of lawyers.
# 4. The fact that others have fought for tort reform before in this country, doesn't mean Sarah Palin can't fight for tort reform at this time, when we need to fight for tort reform even harder than ever, because of the possible horrors from 0bamacare.
Great article. Sarah gets to the root of the problem in a few short paragraphs. And they say conservative Republicans are just the party of ‘no’. It’s more like the party of ‘no BS’.
We already figured this out in Texas...
Poe opposes health care bill, supports Texas tort reform at town hall meeting
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/220600-poe-opposes-health-care-bill-supports-texas-tort-reform-at-town-hall-meeting
Congress should consider implementing Texas’ medical tort reforms on a national level, said Congressman Ted Poe at a surprisingly orderly town hall meeting on health care reform.
In contrast to his Democratic counterparts, Poe, a Republican representing the 2nd District of Texas, was received with rousing applause as he addressed around 250 Southeast Texas residents at Rogers Park in Beaumont on Thursday, Aug. 13.
“As I look out at all of you, you don’t appear to be a mob … or political terrorist,” a smiling Poe told his constituents, adding that “speaking your mind does not make you un-American.”
While the House’s proposed health care bill would only serve to create several layers of bureaucracy between patients and doctors, drive up costs and increase taxes, there is one solution, according to some political pundits, that would reduce all three problems: tort reform.
“Doctors from Massachusetts are moving to Texas because of the state’s (medical) tort reform efforts,” Poe told the Record after he finished addressing the audience. “Tort reform has driven down the price of liability insurance. Texas’ plan has been very successful … and should be (implemented) at a national level.”
Palin/Poe 2012!
Stop shouting, son.
The reason it's not in the bill, is because the Democrats are writing the bill themselves and they're not interested in tort reform. To them, it's a GOP talking point and therefore can be ignored.
Not familiar with that insurance market. Don't know if there are companies that specialize in it, or if most large insurers that offer liability insurance would write malpractice insurance.
But the point here is that removing the settlement of malpractice cases from the court system, or limiting awards should reduce the amount of insurance doctor's have to carry, and therefore reduce the cost of providing medical services.
Second paragraph of that report: PWC was retained by the Insurance Industry. That’s credible.
For the sake of the argument not dissolving into “did not!” “did too!” I would hope one aspect of the research of tort reformers would include this.
Nope. She merely cites the law in her "own state of Alaska," but that particular law was passed in 1997.
# 2. While we have had some successes in some states, tort reform never got enough traction to actually stop frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits across all states in the country, nor did the successes for tort reform go far enough. The fight for tort reform is far from over.
And we didn't need Sarah Palin to tell us that ... in fact, George Bush made it a central part of his presidential agenda.
# 3. We are right now fighting against 0bama’s nasty healthcare bill. Tort reform is one of the biggest weapons to be used against 0bamacare, because the # 1 reason why health costs are super high in this country, is because of lawyers.
You've conflated two separate issues here, and that's a mistake.
Obama's nasty healthcare bill is indeed awful. It is horrendously irresponsible precisely because no attempt has been made to understand the causes of the problems (e.g., high cost) that it purports to be solving. It is based on ideology rather than facts, and that is why it should be opposed.
The second issue is as you say: to determine why health care costs are so very high, and to address those causes. Tort reform would certainly help to address that, but that's only a piece of a larger puzzle. Insurance itself tends to raise health care prices, in the form of increased overhead and reduction of market forces within the health care economy. This is a topic that needs to be addressed separately from any opposition to Obamacare.
# 4. The fact that others have fought for tort reform before in this country, doesn't mean Sarah Palin can't fight for tort reform at this time.
True -- and welcome aboard to her. The problem is that folks hereabouts seem to think that Sarah Palin's sudden arrival has transformed the battle; but it has not. She's late to the game, in fact.
ping ping ping
That sounds like a hint by the insurance folks that they would ease up on premiums if the lawsuit issue was tamed. Having engaged a big name firm to say so, they will have egg on their face if they don’t come across.
True, but you said it had no traction before, which is demonstrably false.
There you go again :).
Hey, I'll keep telling you the truth as many times as it takes.
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