There is some buried treasure found in the Pelosi House Bill that you should know about. It is a method to kill all existing tort reform. Not only does the bill do nothing to curb frivolous lawsuits which creates defensive medicine and increases the cost of medicine but now the WSJ has found that the Democrats are using their bill to "subvert reform that is already on the books in many states".
What the bill has buried in it is a provision to supposedly incentivize states if they come up with an alternative medical liability law. However, that law cannot "limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages". Holy crap, Batman, can this party be more bought out by the trial lawyers? (Uh...yes...the labor unions). Anyway, back to the story. Without stopping the mammoth contingency fees and ridiculously large damage awards then there is no way to stop this runaway train.
To summarize: the states with malpractice reform may actually lose money from the Feds because they have a great plan in place. This is a backdoor slimy trick to kill the good that has already been done. Again, all this at the behest of the trial lawyers. President Obama, where is all the transparency you promised?
Oh, and if you read the piece you will see all the evidence on how these state malpractice reforms have worked (lower malpractice insurance, more doctors staying or coming to these states, etc). The Congressional Budget Office estimates a $54 billion savings over a decade if we institute proper tort reform. Another consulting group estimates $30 billion annually.
The Senate version, by the way, has NO malpractice reform either. Unbelievable.
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