Health Care Reform Watch: Trial lawyers fight back on malpractice

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

Who wants to get all mature (so out of character for me, I know) and acquire some, you know, knowledge? Hands? Thanks to an old pal and reliable source, I've got some information to share with you.

Are we putting on our serious faces? Alrighty then, here we go.

The American Association for Justice (Trial Lawyers) is trying to prevent "tort reform" from ending up in the health care reform bill. Why? Because it would take away people's rights to lower health care costs. Studies show it doesn't lower said costs, so per usual, Americans get screwed in favor of Enormous Pharma/Gigantic Business.

The key point is this: 98,000 preventable deaths each year are due to medical malpractice. Instead of preventing them with regulation and improvement, they want to wish it away by banning your right to sue if they kill someone in your family. See? I told you this was serious:

With President Obama opening the door a crack to tort reform as part of a health care overhaul, the nation's trial lawyers are trying to slam it shut again.

The American Association for Justice announced today it is launching what it called the first phase of a nationwide ad campaign "to educate lawmakers about the epidemic of preventable medical errors and how tort law changes won’t lower costs or cover the uninsured."

Isn't that what I just said? Good, because it bears repeating.

Oh, and those 98,000 deaths from preventable medical errors? Per the AAJ, that's “like two 737s crashing every day for a whole year.” (See image at the top of this post.)

But the ad concludes: “Would we blame the passengers or the airlines?”

We would if we were Rushpublics owned by the airlines.

Obama, in his speech to Congress earlier this month, said while he didn't see malpractice reform as a "silver bullet," he was open to looking at ways to decrease "defensive medicine," when doctors order extra tests and procedures to avoid malpractice lawsuits.

Last week, the White House followed up by announcing $25 million in grants to help states and health care systems test models designed to compensate patients for malpractice but also reduce frivolous lawsuits and lower insurance premiums paid by doctors.

As for that Baucus bill supporting "tort reform" (via the e-mail):

On p.177 of the attached bill...ie 98,000 deaths per year because of medical malpractice, but somehow taking away the victim's right of "civil litigation" is going to solve that...

Don't sue when you're wronged, and magically the errors will go away!

And my source provides us with this:

SUBTITLE H—SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

Current Law

No provision.

Chairman’s Mark

The Chairman‘s Mark would express the Sense of the Senate that health care reform presents an opportunity to address issues related to medical malpractice and medical liability insurance. The Mark would further express the Sense of the Senate that states should be encouraged to develop and test alternatives to the current civil litigation system as a way of improving patient safety, reducing medical errors, encouraging the efficient resolution of disputes, increasing the availability of prompt and fair resolution of disputes, and improving access to liability insurance, while preserving an individual‘s right to seek redress in court. The Mark would express the Sense of the Senate that Congress should consider establishing a state demonstration program to evaluate alternatives to the current civil litigation system.

Okay, done. That's about as much seriousness as I can pump out right now. Consider yourselves educated.