SEN. CHRISSY DUDD FUN FACTSSen. Chrissy Dudd owns a modest cottage in Ireland |
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
LOL! Well, now, let's just check into that statement a bit.
By the time she was selected as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher had been a MP for 20 years. During that time she held a significant number of parliamentary and government posts of increasing importance, and was a member of Edward Heath's government (Secretary of Education). She served as Leader of the Opposition from 1975 until she was selected as Prime Minister.
Margaret Thatcher had amassed an immense amount of experience prior to her ascension to Prime Minister. Far, far more than Sarah Palin can claim at this point. The comparison between Palin and Thatcher is, if anything, even less appropriate than the comparison between Palin and Reagan.
Thanks for playing.
Yes it's sleeping time for the kids.
IOW, insisting on 100% mistake free healthcare is expensive.
I think you have a point. But those who are ready are of no use to us. And look at her -- she's getting it done, getting our voice out into the national stage, something all of our so-celled intellectuals are failing to do.
Sarah Palin is not afraid of missing the coolest cocktail parties in DC. She will not be seated next to Pelosi on a couch at the beach to protest the sun warming the earth. She will speak our opinions boldly. Got a better plan?
He’s pushing DeMint... and doing him a great disservice with his arrogant and uncouth attempts at “dismissing” Palin and her supporters. Wonder what he’d do if DeMint is chosen to be her VP...
I don't know about across the pond but over here one can observe that the longer one is a politician, the more they suck.
Perhaps you haven't observed that pattern. I think a majority in this country, now have.
I'm using DeMint as an example to show that contrary to the claims made on this thread, others -- including DeMint -- have been dealing with the topic of tort reform.
So who is it?
So who are you pushing? None of the Above? Yeah, that’ll work really well in 2012.
You would venture wrong, indeed I have an extensive Python collection, and I am familiar with the Wilde Skit.
I was merely responding to the words about her and lightning bolts. It merely reminded me of this sketch. Nothing more to it.
Of course not...
And that is relevant how?
” She'd be savaged by the media,”
She's ALREADY been savaged by the media more than anyone else in modern American history, she is still standing, and still has more support amongst the American public than almost every other politician, save for a few.
” and she has to overcome the “Dan Quayle” image foisted upon her “
Chortle!
Just keep right on parroting the loony left talking points will ya?
You make Keith Obelermann look like a Boys Scout.
I know Dan Quayle. Sarah Palin is NO Dan Quayle. For starters, most conservatives voted for McCain because of Sarah Palin, not the other way round. Quayle was pretty much irrelevant to the ticket when he run with Bush Snr.
“(with a bit of help from Sarah Palin herself)”
That's right. Blame the victim of the most nasty, vicious smear and character assassination campaign ever mounted against any political figure in recent history.
You'd make a great advisor to rape victims with that technique of yours.
What you gonna do next, blame the Jews for getting slaughtered in gas chambers during the Holocaust too?
” And her resignation is a real boon to her opponents, too.”
The only way anyone is going to raise enough money and set up the organization needed to mount a strong , effective, nasty, all out campaign against 0bama in 2012 and win, is by doing it full time, just like 0bama himself run full time, even while pretending to serve i the US Senate. Best thung she ever did was resign. Now she can pay back 0bama for all the massive attacks that 0bama's minions waged on her while she was governor, even while at the same time, setting up her own massive political machine to bring him down.
” If you ask outside of the Amen corner, you'll discover that a lot of folks just don't take her seriously.”
Umm..there have been lots of polls “outside the Amen corner”.
She beats almost all Republican candidates right now.
” She needs to spend a lot of time and effort to change that perception — she can't do it in a year, which is when she would have to get serious about campaigning”
She is using her time right now, to grapple with the serious issues facing our country, and hitting hard at 0bama over his maniacal determination to destroy our country.
No Republican leader is as effective as Sarah Palin right now, in the assault on 0bamacare or on any number of other crimes that 0bama is committing against this country.
SEN. CHRISSY DUDD FUN FACTSSen. Chrissy Dudd owns a modest cottage in Ireland |
Probably not. Then again, just because Sowell is smart doesn't mean he's right. Nor, for that matter, does it mean you've properly understood his point.
For example, his paean to her from 27 Feb '09 calls her "galvanizing," and for a segment of the party she certainly is.
Sowell stops short, however, of mentioning her accomplishments. Instead, he only dissmisses her inexperience by pointing out that Obama is even more inexperienced. Not much of a recommendation, that....
Moreover, he doesn't actually say "Sarah Palin should be president" or "Sarah Palin should lead the GOP." His point is that the Republicans need somebody to shake them out of their complacency. That's true. But, notably, he does not say that Sarah Palin is the leader the GOP needs.
Well, I have respect for DeMint, and as I previously posted, he showed a great deal of courage and fortitude when he predicted that healthcare would be obozo’s Waterloo.
The problem that some are running into is knocking any true conservative, which of course includes making disparaging remarks about Sarah Palin.
She has also shown a great deal of courage and honesty every time she articulates valid criticisms of obozo’s policies and agenda.
Those who are following their knee jerk reactions and allowing the treasonous MSM to decide who our candidates should be are falling into the MSM trap.
Creating divisivenss around Sarah is completely unproductive. Those who do so should remember that when you throw mud, you lose ground!
Well, you’re certainly a devoted Palinite, I’ll give you that much.
There is no doubt in my mind that Gov. Palin is at least as smart as obama.
I know for an absolute FACT that she is much wiser...
It's the truth. Too bad your support of Ms. Palin seems to have sapped you of your sense of humor.
You are right she did not invent the idea of Tort Reform. A big BUT... she is a rare opponent of Obamacare that is in a leadership position giving details about the “elephant” in the room many are ignoring or are too cowardly to jump in on the behalf of American citizens.
I think this is the point being made and the reason folks are listening to Palin. You can hear a pin drop amongst the current Republican leaders when it comes to constructive dismantling of Obamacare and yet at the same time addressing a plan for real Health Reform. I would gladly welcome 20 more conservative leaders to pop up and challenge this fraud of a health care reform being pushed out by the Dems. Conservatives have been waiting and wanting a leader that speaks up and takes the issue right to the libs. Right now Palin is the only one speaking to the people and for the people. Many Americans are on the same page as Palin.
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