There is no better cure for insomnia than the sound of a Republican talking about health care. The soporific maunderings of people like Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal on reform are guaranteed to produce merciful slumber, even in conservatives who sympathize with their views. The sole exception is, of course, Sarah Palin. She terrifies progressives and irritates establishment Republicans, but she is [...]
If you are at all concerned by out-of-control malpractice lawsuits, you need to read this WSJ piece on Joe Biden’s relationship with the trial bar: Mr. Biden is one of the tort bar’s staunchest allies in Congress, blocking reform at every opportunity while trying to defeat conservative judicial nominees. Why? Money, of course: A remarkable political [...]
Like having a hospital within a few miles of your house for emergencies and other medical needs? Well, enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t be around for long if the following assertion in the WSJ is correct: Hospital infections will cause the next wave of class-action lawsuits, bigger than the litigation over asbestos. Here’s a news [...]
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that defensive medicine adds $210 billion to America’s medical bill. Kevin Pho explains, in USA Today, why doctors order so many CYA tests: The simple reason is that every physician wants to avoid being sued.Win or lose, the ordeal of a malpractice trial is a devastating experience. But do good doctors really need to be this [...]
When dealing with the problem of medical overtreatment, ”progressive” policy wonks always manage to tiptoe around the elephant in the room: malpactice abuse. A typical example of this phenomenon can be found at Economist’s View. In a post about Shannon Brownlee’s book, Overtreated, Mark Thoma insinuates that the overtreatment problem is caused by greed: Essentially, the argument is that [...]
The New York Times reluctantly reports that tort reform in Texas has produced precisely the results its advocates predicted: Four years after Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas [...]
A couple of months ago, I linked to a post that featured some interesting physician comments regarding the culpability of personal injury lawyers in the increased use of C-sections. Many of the docs mentioned one such attorney by name: Edwards specifically has made much of his fortune suing doctors for not performing C-sections, arguing that they help [...]
Fred Thompson believes that Federalism is the key to meaningful tort reform. He writes that, rather than relying on Washington to solve the problem of malpractice abuse, we should look to the states. To support this proposition, he cites the Texas experience: Only a few years ago, Texas was losing doctors fast. Rising malpractice insurance [...]
This produced a coffee-spewing LOL when I saw it. John Edwards wants to help with malpractice reform? Well …. ah …. only Nixon could go to China, right? Some blawgs, like TortsProf are pretty sanguine about Edwards new religion. Other law bloggers, like Eric Turkewitz, are not amused. I have to go clean my monitor [...]
The health care plan presented by the John Edwards presidential campaign has received a good deal of approbation from the advocates of government-run health care. Paul Krugman, for example, advises that the Edwards plan “gets it right.� But we don’t have to wait for Edwards to to become President to see him change health care. [...]
