It is no coincidence that over seventy percent of all our legislators are lawyers -- it is a testament as to where power and influence lie. In addition, if one would also do the research, you will find that most of our presidents have been lawyers, including the current president. Notwithstanding the countless lawyer jokes or what Shakespeare had to say about them in his works or what Jesus, The Christ, said about them in the Gospel of Luke, these lawyers still hold sway in the halls of power.
This undue influence that lawyers have on our legislative process is pronounced in our current, protracted debate on health-care reform. Both Republican and Democrat have this stumbling block of lawyers working on their behalf. For years, the Democrats have been beholden to the largess of the trial lawyers and have done nothing to curtail the spate of litigation (Tort Reform) borne out of out of the lucrative medical malpractice.
I am not advocating that doctors, who do harm, via negligence to their patients, should not be held liable, but said patients should not be made instant millionaires. This adversely affects insurance rates and ultimately the general care in the medical field.
Lest our Republicans friends start cheering, you too are beholden to the lawyers who represent the insurance companies. This means that the insurance companies, via their insurance lobbyist lawyers, thwart legislation to curtail reform that would benefit the consumer. This Mexican stand-off between those who oppose tort reform and those advocating on the part of the insurance companies has been holding health-care reform hostage for quite sometime.
There is a template in Mississippi on how this would work and the empirical evidence so far bodes well for lawyers and consumers alike. If only this compromise could take root nationally… so that the public at large does not suffer.
The Need For A Good Faith Compromise
What "spate of litigation" are you talking about? All payments to patients as a result of doctor negligence are required by federal law to be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank. Here are the number of payments since 2001:
ردحذف2001 - 15,659
2002 - 14,391
2003 - 14,220
2004 - 13,523
2005 - 13,081
2006 - 11,759
2007 - 11,478
2008 - 11,022
2009 - 10,722
Notice a trend?
Have you noticed that medical malpractice insurance premiums are much less than they were three years ago? According to the 2009 Medical Liability Monitor rate survey, more than 70% of medical malpractice insurance companies reported filing rate reductions in 2009. More than 10% of the companies began writing insurance in new states that year. Florida has had rate reductions of 35% during the last three years. West Virginia had rate reductions of about 20% over the last three years. Despite the reductions in premiums, the loss ratios of the insurance companies are ridiculously low, meaning that their profits are ridiculously high. Yet health care costs continue to be unaffected. The payments made to the people injured by doctor negligence last year represent 0.14% of health care costs. That's right, 1/7 of one percent.
If what brings you joy is seeing that fewer and fewer people are able to be compensated for injuries caused by medical negligence, then you should be a happy person in light of what has been taking place.