Obama’s Medical Liability “Reforms” May Be Worse Than Nothing
April 1, 2010
Throughout the national health care debate, I wrote several items regarding President Obama’s bold pledge to work with Republicans on medical liability reform. Well, for those of you who wanted to believe in the audacity of such hopes, the Washington Times editorial page pounds the final nail in the coffin:
“President Obama made a big show about being open to sonme Republican reform ideas to rein in lawsuit abuse. Those pledges - which Mr. Obama made twice in public forums - were worthless. The final version of Obamacare, as signed into law, is a dream come true for big-money plaintiffs’ lawyers.”
The new health care law does contain a provision for enacting state medical liability reform demonstration projects, but these projects contain an opt-clause for plaintiffs to use whenever they want. As the Washington Times editorial makes clear, such projects may be worse than no reforms at all.
“…[N]ow plaintiffs effectively get even more power because they can pick and choose whicever system they think is most likely to get them the most cash. The demonstration projects — for ideas such as specialized “health courts,” where expert panels replace random juries — therefore become not a real alternative that levels the playing field, but instead just one more tool in the lawyers’ arsenal.”
Full editorial is here.