Trial Lawyers, tort reform and Obama
By laglen
@laglen (19759)
United States
February 16, 2010 4:47pm CST
The trial lawyers do not want Obama to deal with Tort Reform. Understandably. Obama has said that he will look at it.
Let the predictions begin!
Do think Obama and the Dems will touch it?
Do you think there SHOULD be reform here?
I would love to see it. Lets put the money back in our pockets and out of the hands of trial lawyers. I understand they need to make a living, but come on - this, in my opinion is one of the biggest factors in the cost of health care.
I would love for people to stop the crap law suits, there are times that it is necessary, but it gets out of hand.
So, weigh in, what do you think?
2 responses
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
17 Feb 10
Do you really think that Tort law is what makes health care so expensive? Lets look at the facts. In 2008 it is estimated that the US spent $2.3 TRILLION on health care. According to Harvard economic (Amitabh Chandra) stated that the cost for law suits were about $2.3 BILLION. In 2004 the Congressional Budget Office said that lawsuits make about 2% of all health care spending. And, if you really want to get some information right from the source, WellPoint (one of the largest health care insures in the country) said that liability awards are not what’s driving premiums.
If you want proof of this look at Texas, who capped lawsuits in order to drive down cost of insurance. That one guess what happened in Texas? Here is a story about the great "success" of tort reform in Texas: "McAllen, Texas is one of the most expensive health care markets in the country. In 2006, “Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per person enrolled in McAllen, he finds, which is almost twice the national average — although the average town resident earns only $12,000 a year. “Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns.”
So what do you really think about tort reform now?
http://washingtonindependent.com/55535/tort-reform-unlikely-to-cut-health-care-costs
1 person likes this
@laglen (19759)
• United States
17 Feb 10
I still believe that we need reform in this. I did not say it would fix everything. I know a lot of doctors are reactive in fear of law suits. I believe this cripples them in practicing. One town in Texas does not cover the whole country. There are plenty of other reforms needed. In a perfect world, I would say people paid as they went for health care if thats what they chose. Or bartered for care. There are a few docs that will still do this. I think this is a part of their oath but for fear of law suits...... We have become such a litigious society and I believe it ties hands of various industries.
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
19 Feb 10
Laglen, I agree that this wouldn't fix everything, but if you listen to republicans they think that this will solve everything. I agree that one town doesn't mean that it will happen everywhere, but they did exactly what you are calling for, and you see what happened. The problem is that you don't understand who really makes money off of law suites. It isn't the lawyers, it is the insurance companies who admitted in 2001 that they were going to raise rates across the board to make up for all of their bad investments in tech. One of the other winners under our current medical system is the bad doctors who are defended by the AMA as if they were perfect, and the good doctors have no room to talk about their malpractice rates because they refuse to call out the bad doctors.
You are correct that litigation has grown, but one of the things that you have to take into consideration that hospitals and industries have put a price on a human life. When you have companies that look at how much money it would cost if they kill someone, and take into consideration how much the doctor makes the hospital, or the practice. Or you can look at Oil companies that spend millions buying peace in third world countries, or killing militants that they couldn't purchase.
What I say is: If you aren't doing anything to be sued, then you don't really have to worry about it.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
20 Feb 10
I agree that there are some stupid people out there that sue for anything, but I just wish that everyone would put the honest numbers on the table, show everything exactly what you are looking at, and if you need to, put it up for a general election, and have all Americans vote on it. We sure can't trust they people in Washington to do anything, why not allow us to.
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
17 Feb 10
I would favor a system where a suit is brought before a medical/legal panel and decide if it is a case that needs to be heard. If the panel decides that there is merit they could then pass it to a financial/medical/legal panel and make an settlement offer. The person has the right to refuse it and go to trial but the information gained at the panel level would be pass on and admitted as evidence. The jury would know what the financial offer was and decide what is fair. At the panel level there would be no lawyers but you could bring someone to help you through the process.
The other thing to do is to limit the size (number of people covered by the class action suit) of a class action suit. The lawyer fees would be figured separately by the jury.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
19 Feb 10
Bob, I do like your idea, but you would have to find a way to make it a panel not appointed by politicians. The other thing I would suggest a separate board made up of the AMA, and force them to set standards to punish doctors for their actions, and allow them to prosecute those doctors who need to be. One of the problems we have is that they do nothing at all to the bad doctors.
The other thing they need to do is regulate malpractice insurance, and bring it back in line with where it should be. The insurance companies have made billions off of this, and they know that they can charge what ever they want, know that they will just pass on the added cost to US.
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