Tort Reform Links

The insurance industry has too much control over America's health-care system because it's exempt from antitrust laws. Big insurance companies decide whether patients get the tests and treatment they need, how doctors practice medicine, how much doctors are paid for their services, and how much doctors pay for medical malpractice insurance.

Bush is aiming at the wrong target to bring down health-care costs. According to the Consumer Federation of America, medical malpractice premiums make up less than one percent of our nation's health-care costs. That means that even completely eliminating medical liability would have virtually no impact on the cost of health care.

Bush's attacks on the jury system are nothing more than a desperate attempt to change the subject away from the fact that the insurance industry is receiving special treatment from its friends in the Administration. President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress are beholden to corporate special interests in Washington and are trying to give the insurance industry and other big campaign contributors more legal rights than injured patients and American families have.

Source: The Center for Responsive Politics, Contributions by Sector

Our top priority in reforming America's health-care system should be reducing the shameful number of preventable medical errors that kill nearly 100,000 hospital patients a year - the equivalent of three fatal plane crashes every two days. The day before President Bush attacked juries as the cause of high malpractice insurance premiums for doctors, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that surgical teams leave clamps, sponges and other tools inside about 1,500 patients nationwide each year.

Bush is blaming the American jury system for rising medical insurance rates but skyrocketing rates are a problem around the world in countries that do not have a jury system like ours. Obstetricians in France - which has strict limits on malpractice lawsuits and no juries - recently threatened to walk off the job because of soaring malpractice premiums.

Bush's "solutions" to the health-care crisis are being driven by Washington special interests at the expense of states' rights. A one-size-fits-all federal mandate that limits patients' rights in medical malpractice cases would step on states' rights by wiping out existing state laws and eliminating the authority of state Legislatures to control their own court systems.

When it comes to deciding fair compensation for victims of serious medical malpractice, the American people trust juries in their own communities more than they trust politicians and bureaucrats in Washington.

For more info please see our page on the "phony Medical Malpractice crisis" or click on this link for a study on the real truth about medical malpractice caps. Please also write to your state Representative and your US Senator.

Tort Reform Links:

Business week - refutes need for tort reform
Medical Malpractice - Victims stories
Texas Patient Safety Foundation - An excellent med mal resource
Civil Justice Facts - Civil Justice Fact-sheets
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice - Consumer Advocacy Lawers
http://www.votenader.com/issues/tort.html
http://www.centerjd.org/
http://www.atla.org/
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/tort.php3
Tort_reform_news.html
http://www.publiccitizen.org/
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
GAO Govermant Malpractice Report - see report
Bush Malpractice Campaign
Bush Report summary:
Malpractice Blog

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