Insurance Companies Aren't the Problem, It's the "Junk Lawsuits"

The Chimp in Chief made a trip to Illinois today in a publicity push on the issue of lawsuit reform. The pigs are at the trough folks and the Chimp is slopping the chow in like there is no tomorrow.

"What I'm here to do is say as clearly as I can — the United States Congress needs to pass real medical liability reform this year," Bush said, standing on stage in front of dozens of doctors in white lab coats.

In his first speechmaking trip of the new year and the first ever of a sitting president to Collinsville, Bush said that large malpractice awards have increased the cost of business so much that doctors have to close their businesses or scale back services. He said it also drives up the cost of personal health insurance.

"Many of the costs we are talking about don't start in an examining room or an operating room, they start in a courtroom," Bush said.

"There is a constant risk of being hit by a massive jury award, so doctors end up paying tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to settle a medical claim out of court even when they know they have done nothing wrong," the president said.

Don't sell yourself short Mr. Chimp, you say things clearly because you speak in four word sentences mostly with monosyballic words. But this is wrong on so many levels so let me mention just a couple.

"Large malpractice awards" do not happen in a vacuum, they occur because juries have decided both that a physician and /or hospital (and other doctors/attending personnel) have acted negligently and that the injuries were casued by the negligence. The size of the award is proprtionate to the significance of the injury and the damages consequential to the injury.

There is a constant risk of being hit by a massive jury award by all citizens of this country for our conduct which may be negligent and causes injury and damage. Doctors, insurance companies to be precise, don't pay hundreds, let alone tens, of thousands of dollars to settle claims when they "know they have done nothing wrong becasue of the possibility of a verdict." They don't pay if they are certain there was no negligence.

To be precise, the question is not whether a physician has done something "wrong". The question is whether a person acted "negligently" which is generally defined in these cases as "acting outside the community standard of care". Did the physician do something she should not have done? Like misdiagnose breast cancer and mistakenly remove a patient's two healthy breasts.

Republicans strengthened their majorities in both chambers and intend to work again with Bush to impose a nationwide cap on pain and suffering awards. Bush wants a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages that compensate for pain and suffering, along with other limits.

"Lawyers are filing baseless suits against hospitals and doctors, that's just a plain fact," Bush said. "They are doing it for a simple reason — they know the medical liability system is tilted in their favor."

If Bush stopped talking long enough to his wealthy insurance executive and doctor friends do you think he would have the guts to tell the woman who lost both breasts due to negligence that her claim is only worth, under his propsal, $250,000? Chimpy knows squat about the medical liability system, certainly no more than he knows of the criminal justice system which, ironically he trusts enough to DISPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE just because the justice system has spoken.

The system is not perfect but setting arbitrary limits does nothing but guarantee undercompensation for the worst injured among us. That's alright I guess, as long as the insurance companies bank more to the bottom line. While the insurance companies give money to Democrats, they know who butters their bread.

Republicans for years have been pushing for tort reform, and they may finally get their wish after gaining seats in the House and Senate in the November elections. Bush has indicated he wants to start by limiting damages in medical malpractice suits, which he says have contributed to the skyrocketing costs of healthcare.

Health professionals ($59.6 million, 63 percent to Republicans) and hospitals ($13.5 million, 53 percent to Republicans), led by the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, are behind the president. The AMA has contributed more than $2.1 million in individual and PAC contributions in the current election cycle, 77 percent to Republicans. The AHA has contributed $1.7 million, 56 percent to Republicans.

Unfortunately most people don't give a damn about this issue until they are being told their recovery was limited by the likes of Bill Frist and Rick Santorum.