Eliminating defensive medicine could save upwards of $200 billion in health-care costs annually, according to estimates by the American Medical Association and others. The cure is a reliable medical malpractice system that patients, doctors and the general public can trust.
But this is the one reform Washington will not seriously consider. That's because the trial lawyers, among the largest contributors to the Democratic Party, thrive on the unreliable justice system we have now...
The upshot is simple: A few thousand trial lawyers are blocking reform that would benefit 300 million Americans. This is not just your normal special-interest politics. It's a scandal—it is as if international-trade policy was being crafted in order to get fees for customs agents...
An effective justice system must reliably distinguish between good care and bad care. But trial lawyers trade on the unreliability of justice. It doesn't matter much whether the doctor did anything wrong—a lawyer can always come up with a theory of what might have been done differently. What matters most is the extent of the tragedy and that a case holds potential for pulling on a jury's heartstrings...
Unreliable justice is like pouring acid over the culture of health care.According to Howard, 54 cents of each malpractice dollar goes to lawyers and administrative costs.
And further on the "you mislead" front, this just in from TheHill.com:
Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs.
Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits.
Grassley's amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote.
If the legal bar faced a system as unfair and oppressive as the medical malpractice system, then I wonder if their views on tort reform would be modified. See www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com under Legal Quality category for views on this issue from an MD whose father prosecuted physicians. I have found it very frustrating to discuss this issue with some attorneys, who cannot separate their interest from the public interest. Respectfully, I believe that physicians are more open-minded on this issue
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