Health Care, Medical Malpractice and Conservative Greed
Remember when all the “conservative” members of Congress and governors cried and cried about the only stimulus to grab as much money as they could as soon as it happened? What do you call those things? Hypocrisy? Political expediency? Greed? Are we seeing a repeat of the same shameless behavior in health care?
A little background first. I’m as disappointed as any in the state of health legislation. As one of the associate producers Sicko, responsible for fact checking and processing the movie media spots, such as CNN, Sanjay Gupta, who never convinced me that nothing short of single payer is a big mistake . However, the strategy, I will defer to the activists of many larger more experienced than me, who are trying to ensure that the final bill is as effective as possible.
I have reduced my daily work to something that not many people pay attention, but it is the plight of hundreds of thousands of consumers of health care each year unsafe medical care, ie, “medical malpractice”.
Surprisingly, the health bill might contain nothing that can diminish the responsibility of hospitals insecure or trying to solve insurance problems on the backs of injured patients and also add to their misery. However, unfortunately, due to pressure from organized medicine and the insurance industry, and the muscle is apparent from some right wing politicians are actually having to fight this battle long after the departure of George W. Bush and Karl Rove.
What do these people want? They want to severely limit the compensation to injured patients, as they did in California in 1975 and have continued, state by state over the past 35 years. Now, nearly every state has made it difficult for medical malpractice cases to proceed. The widely cited piece, the New Yorker magazine, which explores why McAllen, Texas, “was the most expensive in the country for health care, told this story quite well. The following dialogue took place with a group of physicians:
“It’s negligence,” said a family doctor who had practiced here for thirty-three, he said. “McAllen hell is legal,” the cardiologist agreed. The evidence for medically unnecessary to protect themselves, he said. Everyone thought that lawyers were worse here than elsewhere.
That explanation left me baffled. Several years ago, Texas passed a tough law malpractice cap pain-and-suffering awards to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Do not demand down? “Virtually zero,” admitted the cardiologist.
“Come on, the final general surgeon. “We all know that these arguments are bullshit. There is overused here, pure and simple.” The doctors said, the charges built up with additional testing services and procedures.
Here’s another way of seeing. The so-called “tort reform” takes money from the hands of catastrophically injured children and puts it into the pockets of insurance companies, as some of these families. Dennis Quaid, whose newborn twins were nearly killed in a California hospital, had in fact some choice things to say about it before Congress:
The law is against the common people. For example, in my home state of California in 1975 tops the compensation law for victims of medical malpractice. The cap has never been raised with inflation. The practical effect is that people without the wealth to pay legal fees up front do not make their cases before a judge or jury.
Now, we find mention of some of these issues in the bill House health care. While we do not agree to limit the legal rights of any person has no place in this bill, at least the House version merely recognizes that States may want to consider a couple of changes in the litigation do not necessarily impair patients. To accomplish this, Congress can provide money to states to explore them – but not to explore “caps”. And why should he? When a state enacts a “cap” is like taking a sledgehammer to the legal system. What is the point of paying a state to explore alternative “dispute” the legitimate right of where it can not go ahead anyway? The Senate had already rejected caps five times under the reign of W’s. Congress was right then, as now, wanting nothing to do with these cruel laws.
However, witness the tantrums of the right as complaining, Ed Gillespie, on Sunday this week that state lawmakers are being “punished” (translation: no federal brochure) to consider case. Hypocrisy? Political expediency? Greed? Nothing new here?
Caps terrible laws. They apply regardless of the degree of misconduct and regardless of the severity of injury, in fact, affecting only the most seriously injured. Not for use as a health care “bargaining chip”. And federal taxpayers are already taking a load enough without adding this to the list.
