Thread: GOP-Proposed Tort Reform to Reduce H.C. Costs, Analysts Say

From "a liberal think tank"!

Updated March 03, 2010

GOP-Proposed Tort Reform Would Reduce Health Care Costs, Analysts Say

By Jim Angle

- FOXNews.com

The president agrees with medical profession that defensive medicine, doctors ordering unnecessary tests to protect themselves, is pushing up the cost of health care.

President Obama is taking a small step on one issue, malpractice lawsuit reform, that Republicans believe is an easy way to reduce health care costs.

Obama's latest proposal "incorporates the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans, including some of the ideas that Republicans offered during the health care summit, like funding state grants on medical malpractice reform," Obama said this week.

The president agrees with medical profession that defensive medicine, doctors ordering unnecessary tests to protect themselves, is pushing up the cost of health care.

"The courts are clogged up with these cases, physicians are afraid of being hauled into court and as a result order tests they ordinarily would not order," said Dr. Cecil Wilson of American Medical Association.

Obama is only proposing to give the states $25 million for planning grants and demonstration projects, not national reform.

But a liberal think tank found the some states have already tried such reforms and that expanding them nationally would reap massive savings.

"We found that roughly, between $92 to $207 billion dollars per year can be saved from reducing defensive medicine," David Kendall, a senior fellow with Third Way, told Fox News.

How? What some states have done is to allow unlimited "actual" damages for injuries, but cap damages for what is called "pain and suffering" -- limiting that to $250,000.

But doctors would still worry about their reputations, so analysts don't think that would end unnecessary testing. But something else might.

"The specific proposal is for a health court or something like it, where it would be a specialized court that would be devoted just for making medical decisions and medical judgments," Kendall said.

"Another would be to say that physicians who practice according to certain scientific principles, performance measure, would be presumed to have done it right, and they could introduce that evidence in court," Wilson said.

Analysts say only 2 percent of injured patients actually file suit, in part because it's such an onerous and drawn-out process. So they say specialized courts and other reforms might actually make it easier for injured patients to recover damages.

"The speed at which you could get compensated would be a matter of months," Kendall said. "Right now, it takes an average of three to five years for a patient to get an award."

And with longer lawsuits, more than half the money can go to lawyers and the courts. Doctors' groups point to the success of "tort reform" in Texas, which had been losing doctors by the thousands. After the reforms, it licensed the highest number of doctors in its history and brought care to many areas of the states that were begging for care.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03 ... itics%2529

heres another reason for high health care.....I was floored when I saw it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjPBtfpn8wI

Originally Posted by sdbrit68

heres another reason for high health care.....I was floored when I saw it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjPBtfpn8wI

That's a well know video which other people have been using to show what is actually happening here. That story is repeated all across this country---and in others, too, I'm sure.

Originally Posted by Captainron

Originally Posted by sdbrit68

heres another reason for high health care.....I was floored when I saw it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjPBtfpn8wI

That's a well know video which other people have been using to show what is actually happening here. That story is repeated all across this country---and in others, too, I'm sure.

good, I figure, the more we put it out there, the more people will remember. An obersvation, and my apoligies if it offends some......but it is my perception, and therefore my reality.

Americans have a short term memory deficit on most things

just look at gas prices, they got lowered for a while, now I dont see people conserving, so they are creeping back up ( yes many reasons for it of course, but a generality), now I see people not caring anymore

but as soon as it hits $4.50 a gallon, they will scream again.

same with illegal immigration, with the recession, and job market now, people are focused and mad.

but, if we turn the economy around, and things become decent, will they still be mad and being proactive, or will they go back to hiring that illegal construction worker because it is cheaper and lets them drive a fancier car

then 10 years from now, a state like california will be spending 30 billion a year on illegals instead of 10.4 billion.

it just appears to me, that we have to keep throwing in peoples faces how the costs associated affect them personally, otherwise, many just dont care, they figure others will do the work and deal with it

hopefully that makes sense