‘Tort Bomb’ hidden in Pelosi’s health care legislation AKA HR 3952
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Pelosi is a damn snake. Yeah, I know that is not a revelation to many and I thought the woman contemptible but she has outdone herself. Damn her soul.
Buried in the 1,990-page House bill is what is being called a ‘tort bomb’. One of the primary ways that has been proven effective in decreasing the rise in health care costs is limiting the huge contingency fees and damage awards from health care lawsuits. Of course you know who is the primary beneficiary of these awards, right? Yes, attorneys. For many, it is their life blood. But by those transfer payments, attorneys are sucking the life blood from patient and taxpayer. Who ultimately pays those awards? No, NOT the insurance companies, the patient and taxpayer (government programs). Yes, the physician pays the premiums but they would not be in business long if they couldn’t pass those fees on to their patients and in government plans, the taxpayer.
So capping the rewards from lawsuits would seem fair. Patients get recompensed for the poor performance of their provider, the attorney makes a decent living, insurance companies make a decent return on fair premiums, and the provider pays for reasonable premiums which are then passed on to their patients. And around it goes.
But not under Pelosi’s House bill. In the bill it specifically states: “does not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.” Know why? Because for the most part the attorneys are in the Democrat camp and the majority of our representatives are or have been attorneys themselves!!! Talk about conflict of interest and the fox guarding the hen house! PLEASE VOTE THE DAMN BUMS OUT. DO NOT VOTE FOR ATTORNEYS RUNNING FOR OFFICE. STOP THE INSANITY!
From a Wall Street Journal article dated 11/12/2009 from protectpatientsnow.org entitled, “…And a Buried Tort Bomb“:
In his September address to Congress, President Obama made a nod to bipartisanship by acknowledging that excessive litigation “may be” contributing to rising health costs, and he proposed state “demonstration projects” to test medical tort reform. This wasn’t much of a concession, but it apparently was still too much for House Democrats, who are using their bill to subvert reform that is already on the books in many states.
Buried in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990-page bill is a provision that provides “incentive payments” to each state that develops an “alternative medical liability law” that encourages “fair resolution” of disputes and “maintains access to affordable liability insurance.” Sounds encouraging. Read on, however, and you come to this nugget: The state only qualifies if its new law “does not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.”
Holy Bill Lerach.
Huge contingency fees and damage awards are the mother’s milk of frivolous lawsuits. That’s why 30 states have adopted caps on awards as the core of their reform, with huge success. Texas imposed malpractice caps in 2003, and the state has been rewarded with fewer lawsuits, a 50% drop in malpractice premiums, and a flood of new doctors. The House bill is intended to discourage other states from doing the same.
The Pelosi bill also provides these incentives only if states adopt watered-down alternatives to existing malpractice caps. Those alternatives include certificate-of-merit rules, which in theory require lawyers to get medical proof before suing but in practice mean that lawyers recruit and finance “expert” witnesses.
States could also provide “early offer” rules, which are supposed to encourage fair settlement of legitimate claims. But as organizations like the Manhattan Institute have noted, those offers only work if combined with restrictions on lawyer fees and damage awards that reduce the incentive to go for the jackpot judgment.
The Senate bill avoids tort reform entirely, notwithstanding Mr. Obama’s showy pledge before a national TV audience.
Never mind that reducing medical lawsuits is a rare reform provision that really would reduce health-care costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the savings at $54 billion over a decade. Consulting firm Tillinghast Towers-Perrin has suggested the direct cost of medical tort litigation is more like $30 billion annually. PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that last year $240 billion in health expenditures were the result of doctors ordering unnecessary procedures to protect against the risk of lawsuits.
The hidden Pelosi tort bomb is one more example of the stealth radicalism that defines ObamaCare. If it passes in anything like its current form, we are going to be cleaning up the mess for decades to come.
To Red Pills home page.
This article, excluding the material cited or the material which is included herein but written by other authors or material covered by other copyrights, is copyright © 2008, by Gary Shumway. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and distribute it electronically and in print, other than as part of a book and provided that mention of the author’s web site www.redpills.org is included. (Email notification is requested.) All other rights reserved.
Gary Shumway is the author of Winging Through America and SCUBA Scoop.
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One of the many REAL reasons to unseat Pelosi. I swear if I see that email about the airplane again telling me how angry I should be about that minutiae I’m going to puke.
Don’t call Pelosi a damned snake. Too harsh. Call her a venomous viper instead. Her tort reform proposal is absurd. States have incentives to study it but are prohibited from implementing caps or addressing attorneys’ fees. What’s left? Why should ordinarly folks care? See http://www.MDWhistleblower.blogspot.com under Legal Quality.
Michael,
Thank you for your comment.
LOL … You are right. Calling her a snake gives snakes a bad name. That said, you’re right, ‘venomous viper’ is even better than a damned snake. Actually, as kid I used to catch and keep snakes. At one time (high school) I was planning on being a herpetologist. So I have nothing against snakes and in reality, vipers are just doing their thing. Unfortunately, like Pelosi, they kill people.
Thanks again for your input.
Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless America!
Gary
Gary, Michael & Don:
I try with everything I have in me to keep calm about all this stuff going on right down the road from me in D.C. I do not understand how any clear-thinking person (even a so-called progressive) can tolerate the lies and under-handedness of these people.
It isn’t just the Pelosi pig. Its all the people in the House who voted for this monstrosity. Its Dirty Harry and his henchmen in the Senate the support this atrocity.
Its Mary Landrau who we now know has a price of $300 million to support Harry. She should be in the cell next door to William Jefferson. She is no less despicable in my eyes. You watch, she will vote for whatever plan Slimy Harry shoves out there.
THERE IS A REVOLUTION COMING! I CAN FEEL IT!
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving everyone. I will be on the golf courses in Williamsburg, VA.
Oooooo! Big surprise! Legislation written to encourage the siphoning of funds from J. Q. Public to the crooked lawyers and politicians. Who woulda thunk? Oh, dear Bard of Stratford-on-Avon, you were soooo right!
Druid,
She was feeling, as you so well put it before….*Pelosiful*.
How’s about *Pelosifulofit*? or Pelosifulofherself.
hehehe ok, I am just having fun now.
Hey Sharon, someone sent me one today:
We need Obamacare like Pelosi needs a Halloween mask!
LOL Good one!