ECONOMICS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
The Truth about Medical Malpractice in America |
|
from Association of Trial Lawyers of America
Entered into the database on Wednesday, July 06th, 2005 @ 14:49:27 MST |
|
The Bush-Cheney proposals impose a big-government, one-size-fits-all
answer. Bush and his special interest allies trust politicians to make a one-size-fits-all
decision about all cases, regardless of the facts. They don't trust
juries made up of people like you, your friends and your neighbors
to decide based on the facts and evidence in each individual case. Caps do not stop frivolous lawsuits. Caps only affect the
cases in which a jury of twelve people heard all the facts of the case and decided
the injury was so severe and life-altering and the misconduct so blatant that
a patient injured by the errors of a health care provider should receive more
than $250,000. By definition, that is not a frivolous lawsuit, but a very serious
one. Bush wants to limit the rights of medical patients when they are
very seriously injured. Doctors, hospitals, HMOs and nursing homes need to take responsibility for
their mistakes just like everyone else. The best solution to this insurance
premium crisis is a cap on the outrageous amount of money HMOs and insurance
companies can charge doctors for medical malpractice insurance. That
means insurance reform. For example, the Bush proposals place an unfair limit on what
a ten-year-old child can receive when she is left in a wheelchair as a result
of the misconduct of someone else and on the rights of a family in which a parent
dies as a result of abuse or neglect in a nursing home, but no limit
on what the insurance industry can charge. Medical Malpractice Facts Doctors are not fleeing states in droves, despite increasingly
frantic and unsupported claims from the American Medical Association, the insurance
industry and their allies. Independent assessments by state officials and the
media have found that the number of doctors in many states including Florida,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, has remained stable and in most, has actually
increased. FL, Palm Beach Post Editorial, 7/16/03; OH, Toledo Blade, 7/17/04; PA, Allentown
Morning Call, 4/24/04; WA, Seattle Times, 2/23/04 The 2003 Weiss Report found that despite caps on economic damages in
19 states, "most insurers continued to increase premiums (for doctors)
at a rapid pace, regardless of caps." The report found that insurers
failed to pass along any savings to physicians in states with caps by refusing
to lower their insurance premiums, and that caps only slowed the increase in
the amount of damages insurers were required to pay out. Weiss Report, 6/3/03 Premiums are higher in states with caps than in those without.
The average malpractice premium in states without caps was $35,016 in 2003.
The average premium in states with caps was $40,381. Medical Liability Monitor, 10/03 Despite claims about "defensive medicine," Americans are
NOT getting the care they need. Medical errors kill as many as 98,000
Americans every year and cost as much as $29 billion, according to the Institute
of Medicine.1 Other research suggests that the human toll may be far higher,
with preventable errors and negligence taking the lives of 195,000 people each
year.2 "To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System," Institute of Medicine,
2000 “Patient Safety in American Hospitals,” HealthGrades, July 2004,
www.healthgrades.com "America spends more on dog and cat food each year than all medical
malpractice payouts combined," said FTCR president Jamie Court,
author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom And
What You Can Do About It. FTRC, 7/20/04,
www.consumerwatchdog.org/healthcare/pr/pr004485.php3 "Malpractice costs amounted to an estimated $24 billion in 2002, but that
figure represents less than 2 percent of overall health care spending. Thus,
even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would
lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and
the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small."
"Limiting Tort
Liability for Medical Malpractice," CBO, 01/08/04 Insurance lobbyists are not interested in your access to medicine.
In 2004, one drug company alone—Merck—spent over 1.7 million opposing
bills such as the Pharmaceutical Market and Drug Safety Act. In 2002, the drug
company spent over 7.3 million opposing the Greater Access to Affordable Pharmaceutical
Act of 2001, among others. "Merck Lobbying Reports," Political
MoneyLine, 01/02—06/04 |