Oldtimer said:
Sandhusker said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
If medical malpractice lawsuits were not allowed or at least limited to amount that can be sued for.
Health care costs would go down. Bush already tried to bring some sense on this issue and got shouted down by the liberals.
There are 204 lawyers in Congress- 81 of which (21 Senators, 60 Representatives) are Republicans...It was not only liberals/Dems that have kept the tort reform issue from ever going anywhere.... :roll:
Altho he promised it as a campaign promise- the only tort reform GW got done (or even tried) was to give the big banks more grab over bankrupt entities funds- while negating the small debtors claims
Once again you do not present all the facts!!!!!!!
ECBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen reports on the big issues and analyzes important cases of the day.
(CBS/AP) President Bush launched his second-term campaign for limits on damage awards Wednesday by declaring that doctors should be fighting illnesses, not lawsuits.
The president made his case at a stop in Madison County, Illinois, recently rated by a lobbying group as the best place in America to file suit.
"What I'm here to do is say as clearly as I can — the United States Congress needs to pass real medical liability reform this year," Mr. Bush said in Collinsville, Ill., standing on stage in front of dozens of doctors in white lab coats.
Mr. Bush said that large malpractice awards have increased the cost of business so much that doctors have to close their businesses or scale back services. He said it also drives up the cost of personal health insurance.
"Many of the costs we are talking about don't start in an examining room or an operating room, they start in a courtroom," said Mr. Bush.
"There is a constant risk of being hit by a massive jury award, so doctors end up paying tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to settle a medical claim out of court even when they know they have done nothing wrong," the president said.
Exhibit A in Mr. Bush's case is Madison County, Ill., across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, named the country's top "judicial hellhole" by the American Tort Reform Association last year because of its reputation for big awards.
Lawyers in the area say the legal situation has been exaggerated and Mr. Bush is demonizing the county even though large malpractice awards have been scarce. Leading Democrats in Congress say the number of doctors practicing in Illinois has risen in recent years, despite higher malpractice insurance rates that they say are driven by the state's weak insurance regulation.
Mr. Bush personalized his point by meeting with a neurosurgeon, an obstetrician gynecologist, a cardiologist, a hospital administrator and a pregnant woman who had to change doctors repeatedly because so many were going out of business.
The president's visit to Madison County was one of several events this week to win congressional and public support for tort reform. He faces strong opposition from Democrats in Congress, who say patients deserve the right to seek awards, without arbitrary ceilings, for medical mistakes.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., called the president's plan "nothing but a shameful shield for drug companies and HMOs who hurt people through negligence." He urged the president to offer a plan that puts patients first.
On Thursday, Mr. Bush is inviting members of both parties in Congress to discuss the issue in the White House. On Friday, he plans a trip to Clinton, Mich., focused on asbestos lawsuits, which represent the longest-running mass tort litigation in U.S. history.
Caps on damage awards of varying types have been implemented in 27 states, but a proposed federal cap, though successful in the House, was defeated because of Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Republicans strengthened their majorities in both chambers and intend to work again with Mr. Bush to impose a nationwide cap on pain and suffering awards. Mr. Bush wants a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages that compensate for pain and suffering, along with other limits.
"Lawyers are filing baseless suits against hospitals and doctors, that's just a plain fact," he said. "They are doing it for a simple reason — they know the medical liability system is tilted in their favor."
But the lawyers who win those awards for malpractice victims and other opponents of Mr. Bush's initiative say the real problem is insurers who look to raise premiums and, consequently, their bottom line. They also use personal stories to tell their side, such as a woman who said doctors switched her test results and mistakenly told her she had breast cancer before amputating both her breasts. She is featured in a $250,000 television ad buy in the St. Louis and Washington markets to coincide with the president's visit.
And this!!!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Bush renews call for tort reform
President’s criticism of suits is rejected by lawyers association
By Ameet Sachdev and Tribune Staff Reporter
February 08, 2007
President Bush again is taking jabs at medical malpractice lawyers andcalling for nationwide tort reform.
“I’m worried about frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost ofhealth care,” the president said on a visit to Caterpillar Inc.’s Peoriaheadquarters last week, revisiting an issue that has been near the top of hisagenda since he entered office. ” … And when somebody gets sued all thetime, they practice more medicine than is necessary and it runs up your cost.”
The line prompted an immediate response critical of Bush’s statement from anational advocacy and lobbying group for trial lawyers.
“Bush is misleading the American public all to make the case for furtherpadding the profits of his insurance industry friends,” said Jon Haber, chiefexecutive of the American Association for Justice, formerly the Association ofTrial Lawyers of America. “Restricting the rights of victims to holdwrongdoers accountable will do nothing to lower health care costs and in turn,eliminate a key incentive for hospitals and health-care providers to decreasethe 100,000 deaths that occur each year from preventable medical errors.”
The hostile rhetoric is part of a renewed debate on changes to the legalsystem, “tort reform” in political lingo. After letting the issue simmer lastyear, the president is again leading the discussion, framing it as a barrierto economic growth.
A day after he came to Illinois, Bush said in New York that “excessivelawsuits will make it hard for America to remain the economic leader that wewant to be.” In his State of the Union address last month, Bush called onCongress to pass legislation this year that would limit damage awards inmedical malpractice cases.
But unlike the past six years, Bush’s legal agenda is likely to be ignored.Congress is under the control of Democrats, who have generally not supportedefforts to scale back the types of lawsuits people can file and how much theycan recover. Many find tort reform legislation overly pro-business and againstthe interests of consumers. In addition, trial lawyers are among theDemocrats’ biggest financial supporters.
Any efforts to further reform the litigation system will face formidableopposition from Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, chairman of the SenateJudiciary Committee.
“Chairman Leahy is focused on finding solutions that promote consumersafety and protections rather than shielding big corporations fromaccountability,” said Tracy Schmaler, a spokesperson. “Legislating awayAmericans’ legal rights is one-sided, counterproductive and wrong.”
Some of the most powerful business lobbyists are resigned to fighting anuphill battle. Dr. Cecil Wilson, chairman of the American MedicalAssociation’s board of trustees, said the chances of passing medical liabilityreform in the next two years are miniscule.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration has kept up its attack. Part of theRepublican strategy, supporters say, is to exert influence at the state leveland on courtrooms across the country. Bush is also trying to shape the debatefor the 2008 election. Democrat John Edwards, who has announced his entry intothe presidential election, was a trial lawyer before entering politics.
“I’m always happy when [the president] says something about [tort reform]because it does focus attention on it,” said Ed Murnane, president of theIllinois Civil Justice League, which supports tort-reform efforts. “The moreattention he focuses on it the better.”
Under Republican control, Congress adopted a few of the measures the WhiteHouse has proposed to limit civil suits, most notably one in 2005 that sharplycurtailed the ability of people to file class-action suits against companies.
But tort-reform proponents have had more success at the state level. Capson what juries can award in medical malpractice cases, for instance, have beenapproved in 30 states, half of those since 1999, including Illinois, accordingto the AMA. In 2005 Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a medical malpractice reformlaw that limited awards for pain and suffering to $500,000 for individualphysicians and $1 million for hospitals.
But federal efforts the last two years to limit malpractice awards have notreceived much support.
“Proposals such as arbitrary caps on medical malpractice claims do littleto protect true victims while limiting Americans’ legal rights and access tojustice,” said Schmaler, Leahy’s spokesperson.
In addition to medical malpractice, the president is now taking aim at alaw that he signed in 2002: the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which imposed strictercorporate governance measures after high-profile financial scandals shookinvestor and public confidence. In his remarks in New York last week before areceptive audience of business leaders, Bush linked overregulation andexcessive lawsuits as two of the biggest burdens the economy faces.
He stopped short of calling for any legislative changes to Sarbanes-Oxley,but he backed efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission and thesecretary of the treasury to reduce the regulatory burden that some of theprovisions have placed on business. He specifically referred to Section 404 ofthe act, which requires an auditor to assess the internal controls at a firm.Critics have complained that compliance with the measure is too costly forsome businesses.
“There are problems with Sarbanes-Oxley that the business community isstruggling with uniformly,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Chicago-basedMesirow Financial. “But Congress has to balance the needs of the public tohave accountability and not throwing out the baby with the bath water.”
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There are more oldtimer want to retract part of your statementThat Bush did not try???
Eh oldtimer?? :liar: :liar:
Oh Vey caught again!!!!!!
