Malpractice Reform in Health Care Deal?

Does anyone realize that total spending on malpractice-related costs come to only about 1-2% of every dollar spent on health care in the US? The CBO says even the most vigorous liability reform would not have any measurable effects on insurance premiums, cost of care and, in turn, overall health spending.
Tort reform is a joke, a decoy used by Republicans to say they want health care “reform,” just without the actual reform part…

Luckily Olympia Snowe is negotiating in good faith.
I too think that malpractice reform should be on the table.

Malpractice reform absolutely should be a part of health care reform. Most doctors I know admit to ordering too many tests because, heaven forbid something go wrong and they didn’t order 1 test. They are sued big time by lawyers who go after ANYONE even remotely related to the incident, figuring the insurance company will settle – and they are usually right.

In 2003 Texas enacted The Most Onerous malpractice bill in the country, HB4, which precludes homemakers and children from collecting more than their economic losses and caps CEOs killed in negligent surgery at $250,000. And for that Texas healthcare premiums have not dropped a penney. So for those screaming for med mal practice reform look carefully at Texas and you will see it does absolutely nothing to reduce healthcare premiums. IF there is any savings it has just been put in the pockets of health insurance companies. An is that what this whole controversy is about?

“Most doctors I know admit to ordering too many tests because, heaven forbid something go wrong and they didn’t order 1 test.”
That argument is totally phony. Why? Because for 6 years Texas has had “The Most” opressive mal practice laws in the country. It has swung so far to the right that over 90% of lawyers will not touch a med mal practice claim here, regardless of its merits and regardless of the extent of injury. Not only have healthcare premiums “not” come down in Texas and in fact have increased beyond the national average, but diagnostic testing has exploded since 2003 when our reforms were signed into laws. The healthcare companies in Texas have big smiles on their face in Texas with bigger profit margins just ask our governor; he can now brag that not only do we now have high healthcare premiums but we Lead the Nation in the numbers of uninsured. And that is what the GOP dreams of for our nation?

the statistics Mike references were actually verified by the past Texas Insurance Commissioner Robert Hunter’s Americans for Insurance Reform July 2009 study that found that med mal practice premiums actually make up only .05% of health insurance costs. Again in Texas it has been great to help line the pockets of health insurance carriers but has done zero to either lower consumer healthcare premiums or in any way reduce diagnostic testing, which in fact has exploded AFTER our 2003 bill was signed into law. And that is what the GOP wants for our nation.

Disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards made over $30 million off of the backs of doctors who were found to have committed the unpardonable sin of simply trying to deliver babies. Most of his legal arguments centered on the theory that cerebral palsy can be prevented if a baby is delivered by cesarian section. After Edwards and those like him had had their way with the medical community, the number of children being born cesarian spiked (as you can imagine it would). However, the percentage of children born whe cerebral palsy remained static. Interesting, that, don’t you think?
C’mon, folks. You need to grow up and realize you can’t have it all. If you want universal health coverage with no limitations on preexisting conditions, jackpot jury awards, low monthly premiums, unlimited doctors co-pay visits, and…well, fill in the blank…then, you are clearly delusional. Many doctors will not deliever babies or practice other types of high-risk services for fear of being sued. The cost of malpractice insurance has forced many practioners out of the profession entirely. Let’s get those damn lawyers out of the operating room. There are other things you can do with your life besides suing your doctor. Money is, after all, something you work for, is it not? If you like the idea of a jackpot, then by a lottery ticket.
Greg CA

Posted by: Susie Madrak | Sep 9, 2009 7:44:08 AM
It will never happen TORT reform, because the democrats get to much money from the trail-lawyers, I have no problem with suing someone but not because your unhappy and then the lawyers get anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the settlement.

Lizzie do you not understand that the 33% you want to whine about is a CONTINGENCY. If the lawyer spends $80,000 out of his pocket which is tipical in these kinds of claims, and then the jury comes back with a zero award guess how much that lawyer rips you off for? That’s right -$80,000. Next time you get into that situation I strongly suggest that you tell your lawyer that you don’t want them to be paid a contingency and that you would prefer being charged an hourly fee plus all of the expenses paid out of your pocket, or maybe instead you would prefer being considered pro bono b/c you think so highly of lawyers anyway.

Unbelievable. I thought the democrats stood for such basic principles as equal access to the courts. Max Baucas is a pimp for the health industry. How dare he sell out the rights of hundreds of thousands of families who are affected by malpractice every year. Protection of the profit-mongering insurance companies is obviously more important to this imposter than anything else.

Poor Leichman, a lib trapped in a magnificently conservative state. Good heavens, you MUST know that we have a liberal president, a liberal party with SUPER-MAJORITIES in both houses of Congress (they’ve been in charge now for going on THREE YEARS, by the way), and YET you seem to focus all your vitriol on the Republicans, who are out-voted, out-numbered, and utterly incapable of stopping ANYTHING the Democrats want to push through, if they could but speak with one voice–only they can’t–and that’s certainly the fault of NO Republican.
Let me add, for members of the “Oh-why-oh-why-can’t-we-be-more-like-Europe-whimper-whimper!” crowd, that in the United Kingdom they have a very simple and mature way of handling frivolous lawsuits: loser pays. So, if you feel your lawsuit has merit, by all means, stand up for your rights and let your case be heard. But, if you’re just looking to make a quick, easy buck because of a set of unfortunate circumstances, then beware of the potential consequences.
Leichman, I don’t doubt that you FEEL you are paying more than you should for your medical insurance, however, I must question whence you gleaned that .05% statistic on malpractice insurance. Can you quote your source? I’d love to read THAT news article.

Since Texas passed medical malpractice reform in 2003 malpractice insurance rates for doctors have come down every year. Instead of leaving the state, doctors now come to Texas to practice. This has increased the access to medical care for Texans, which is one of the reasons the law was passed to begin with. It’s hard to have a baby when there is no OB in your county, and that was one of the problems. The OB’s were leaving for greener pastures, tired of all the frivilous lawsuits they had to deal with.
By all accounts, the Texas tort reform has been tremendously successful, for doctors and patients alike.

“NEW YORK, July 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A major new study released today
by Americans for Insurance Reform finds that premiums and claims for doctors
both have dropped significantly in recent years while the medical malpractice
insurance industry is enjoying remarkable profits in light of the global economic collapse. It concludes that further limiting the liability of
negligent doctors and unsafe hospitals is not only unjustified, but also would
have almost no impact lowering this country’s overall health care
expenditures.”
For those of you who think limiting awards will bring down premiums, think again.

Gosh, a STUDY says suing won’t drive up costs. WOW! I’m convinced. What a silly fool I’ve been.
I’m going to go out right now and have a complicated medical procedure done, just so I can sue the pants of my doctor! YIPEEEE! Those greedy insurance companies and doctors make so much money! Why can’t I get me some of that there action?! I deserve it, don’t I?
Thanks, GrannyG95! What would we do without you?

Why is it that every time “tort reform” is brought up, we get the same old tired arguments that med/mal “only makes up 1-2% of health care spending, etc., blah, blah, blah……..”?
Folks, I am a physician. I know about this issue. Medical liability lawsuits are one of the, if not THE main driving factor of health care price inflation. It is a fact. Get over it. This is something all doctors know. Quit arguing with us on this.
However, “limiting damages” or “caps” won’t solve anything, and it hasn’t where it has been put in place. The problem is not big payouts, the problem is the sheer number of suits with zero merit. Any effective tort reform needs to limit the number and frequency of lawsuits.
Medical malpractice does happen in this country, but true malpractice is about as common as female high school teachers having sex with their male students. It is an event!
The solution that would work is “Loser Pays”. Soon, frivolous lawsuits designed to extort money from innocent doctors and insurance companies would disappear. The cost of medical care would plummet overnight. Try it.

I am a real practicing physician, primary-care, Internal Medicine, Board Certified. The arguments made “against” tort reform on this blog make my blood boil. The assertion that malpractice only makes up “1-2%” of healthcare expenditure, or that reform would only lower our gross expenditures by “1-2%” is farcical! Every single competent physician I know practices defensive medicine! It’s not something “bad” that we do; it’s something that is necessary simply to survive (great jabs on this blog at John Adulterer Edwards — the joke of a “public servant” who RAPED the malpractice system, and gave other clowns/trial lawyers the green light to follow). At LEAST 25% of the tests we order — labs, images, procedures — could EASILY be reduced once physicians had an opportunity to practice medicine the way they were taught, rather than practice the way that we are forced to practice because of the goon squads of trial lawyers (scum) who will sue a physician without any consideration of the merits. And we ALL know that these clowns ADVERTISE on television, these ambulance-chasing parasites, in the hopes of netting frivolous slip-fall artists. As a disclosure, I have practiced medicine for 12 years. I have a 5-star rating in my community. And I’ve never been sued. But I am a rare exception to the rule that EVERY physician will be sued someday! Did you hear that? Every single physician who practices in the US will at some point be sued. What does that tell you? That all physicians are incompetent boobs who deserve to be sued, or that the “rights” of patients trump the “rights” of physicians? What it tells you is that the sheer amount of frivolous malpractice suits is staggering (unless every single physician commits malpractice). And it only really takes ONE malpractice suit to significantly alter a physician’s career. But more importantly, it only takes ONE frivoulous suit to have the ripple effect across a community of doctors to practice…drumbeat please…DEFENSIVE MEDICINE! (again, easily leading to 20% or more in unecessary costs).

I would like to say that I am aware there are decent, honorable lawyers in the world. We are a nation of laws, and when the law is broken or a wrong must be set to right it is the courts that we turn to for social rectitude and equity. The alternatives are anarchy and vigilante justice. I agree that professionally trained juries would be an excellent idea. Judges and lawyers have to go through extensive education and training. Why just pull random people off the street to deliver a random verdict? Also, since lawyers usually specialize in practicing one particular kind of law, why not have jurors trained in business law, or medicine, or criminal law?
I once had a professor in college who was also a former CHP Patrol officer. He didn’t have a great deal of affection for lawyers, but he once said, “There’s always room in this world for one more good lawyer.” I don’t have a problem with people standing up for what they feel is right. But I am greatly saddened when something that should be an instrument of last resort morphs into a perverse national pastime.
Imagine an economy where EVERYBODY was a lawyer, looking for somebody to sue. Who would pick up the trash? Who would deliver the mail? Who would serve the food in restaurants. But wait! You don’t have to imagine at all. Just come visit California and see how we’re doing :OP
I’m far from being a demagog. I know we need lawyers. I just don’t think we need quite so many as we have at the moment. On balance, the litigation industry is a significant drain on our economy.

The government has no power to negotiate prices with drug companies, and that power was specifically omitted from the prescription drug benefit legislation. It’s more in the details like these – that never get mentioned, that this whole debate is so far out of hand. I believe in TORT reform, and since you can never put a “price” on life, many will disagree as to cap amounts. Caps will have to be in place, but considering trial lawyers are taking about a third to half of all malpractice awards … a serious discussion on the “awards” paid to Lawyers is overdue.

I Think malpractice suits should be made rather difficult to file and the fact that so many unwarranted law suits are filed is a testimony that something should be done. But, this goes to the healthcare reform as well. Why should we have malpractice suits if the doctors and hospitals worked with good intentions? Unless something is done out of bad intentions, there should be no malpractice suits. That is what should be included in the healthcare reform bill.

Tort reform will do nothing to lower health care costs. Thirty states already have it in some form or another, and it has done nothing to reduce costs in those states. Further, medical malpractice lawsuits cost no more than 1 to 2% of health care spending in this country and never have. Finally, people watch too much TV; it is impossibly hard since tort reform to hold doctors and/or health care facilities accountable for their mistakes. I don’t need the CBOs statistics on this issue. I worked for a medical malpractice attorney for 14 years, yet I’ve never been against reasonable tort reform. Unfortunately, it has been taken several steps too far in many states. Finally, President Obama knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s throwing the Republicans a bone. He already knows what looking into tort reform is going to show. It’s a non-issue as far as health care costs are concerned.

Malpractice reform has always been a resoundingly popular idea with Republicans, which made the topic a perfect one for President Barack Obama to talk about in his recent address to Congress. George W. Bush had a “good idea” on malpractice reform, the President said–one he intended to pursue as part of a health-care overhaul. Cue a rare moment of bipartisan applause.

A healthcare bill that proposes to control costs and make the system more efficient but that does not include SERIOUS malpractice reform is disingenuous. Frivolous law suits are out of control and it’s disgusting to see physicians, surgeons and hospitals taking a back seat in all of this to self-serving HMOs and opportunistic, parasite lawyers. Asking physicians, providers and hospitals to be the ones to sacrifice, in order to make healthcare more accessible, while the insurance industry and trial lawyers continue to take advantage of the system. As a lifelong Democrat, it sickens me to see the strangle hold that trial lawyers have on our party. The Republicans are right on the money on this one!

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