Senate Republicans Fail Again in Efforts to Cap Medical Malpractice Awards

May 8, 2006

  • May 9, 2006 at 9:14 am
    Willing to bet says:
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    Is it not you who claim to want affordable healthcare to all? It will never happen as long as premiums continue to rise and the Dems continue to reject tort reform which makes sense. Outlandish jury verdicts are part of this problem. Capping damages will keep premiums lower than not capping damages. Its a simple concept.

  • May 9, 2006 at 1:49 am
    Me says:
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    that is so typical of the hypocritic dems. Cheap healthcare but let the lawyers sue the heck out of everyone, when will they realize this will not work. We need to get this legislation through.

  • May 9, 2006 at 2:35 am
    Woo Hoo way to go says:
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    My personal experience with underwriting medical malpractice stems from a good example of why we shouldn’t place a cap on expenses. A doctor we used to insure over the time frame of 12 years had 6 medical claims. Only one of which I would consider “frivolous” . Some of the other claims that were settled scared the hell out of me. There is one claim where this doctor failed to diagnose for 2 ½ years of care that a woman had cancer. She died- oopsie. Or when he performed a cervical manipulation without consent and ruptured a right vertebral artery which caused the woman to have a stroke. My bad…

    So what price do you set for the pain and suffering of a lost loved one, or the loss of the ability to have children? 100,000? 200,000? It boils down to one thing- other doctors know when a colleague shouldn’t be in practice yet turn their heads away instead of blowing the whistle. Want lower rates??? Get rid of the bad apples. Claims over 50,000 should be reported to the Medical Board. Costs are going up because nobody is watching the kids. Stop penalizing the victims and start taking the doctors to task for their actions. They screw up they pay, one way or another. Capping will only enable the bad apples to stay in practice.

  • May 9, 2006 at 2:51 am
    dothetime says:
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    Yes, Woo Hoo. It is not about greedy Republicans and their lobbyist puppetmasters in Washington. It is about human beings and their suffering.

    Once again, think about our place in the Republican universe. Maximum value of our ruined life, $750,000. That fourth or fifth million (or fortieth or fiftieth million) for a corrupted Republican politician, priceless.

    It looks like a few good men woke up and smelled the Republicans on this deal. Doctors demonstrably can\’t police themselves and they are supposed to get a free pass for negligence and worse…great, Senator First, shareholder of a major healthcare coverage held in not really a blind trust. Can we say \”Conflict of Interest?\”

    Oh and by the way, the percentage of cost of malpractice suits and insurance in the overall medical expense universe, less than 1%. I\’ve got an idea–let\’s work on the other 99%.

  • May 9, 2006 at 3:25 am
    Vlad says:
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    A couple of questions comrade.

    1) Why did you continue to insure the \”bad\” doctor? Are you a greedy capitalist that just wants to make money?

    2) Should we have just one person in charge of all dotor negligence? Can we call that person Hillary?

  • May 9, 2006 at 3:28 am
    Me says:
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    You are entitled to your opinion about Republicans no matter how false I beleive it is. However I will say you missed one thing, you failed to mention the scumbag lawyers, why whould you leave them out? They are getting rich at the doctors expense! Using your logic I should be allowed to be awarded $1 Billion if a doctor accidentally cut off the finger, for some reason I dont\’t think thats fair to the doctors. They are people to you know. Please don\’t mistake this as defending extremely negligent doctors that\’s not what I\’m trying to do, I just want to play devils advocate.

  • May 9, 2006 at 3:44 am
    Can\'t Believe says:
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    Unbelieveable. You people that think that Medical Malpractice claims and trial lawyers are not costing the consumer are idiots. Look at the cost of precription drugs. When there are no OBGYNs to deliver your baby don\’t complain.

  • May 9, 2006 at 3:45 am
    Willing to Bet says:
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    Ok we have a deal. Lets not cap the pain and suffering but lets cap the lawyers fee to the lesser of 2% or $100K including expenses. Bet the courts will not be logged jammed by these lawyers running the clock on their client. They will rush to get to the table and settle. The real problem is the lawyers and liberal jury\’s.

  • May 9, 2006 at 3:54 am
    Woo Hoo says:
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    Me- I understand I failed to mention the Republicans as that would just be a waste of breath, lol. As far as lawyers are concerned they should be fined for bringing a friviolus law suit of any kind to court, period. (best place to get them to apy attention is in the wallet)

    Do- As far as a billion dollars for a oops cut off finger- what would you say if it were your finger that was cut off?? Doctors while human need to be held more accountable for their actions, as their actions affect the quality of life for others, just like we hold our ellected officials to the same standards.

    As far as not insuring the doctor from hell, well he was eventually nonrenewed. Alternate terms jacked up his premium by about 20K, to listen to the compalints that it was too much money damn near made me gag. He\’s still in practice and at a semi local hospital- I just pray I never have to go there.

  • May 9, 2006 at 4:07 am
    Woo Hoo says:
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    Can\’t – oh please cost of prescription drugs has little to do with a cap on pain and suffering- the drug companies are charging an arm and leg (wonder how those would cost) because they can. US charges way more cause we are like all Americans- capitolists.

    And as far as an obgyn, I sincerly doubt they would all be gone. That is silly to think that just because there is no cap that they will move out of state. There are as many would be doctors as there are lawyers in school now. They have to work somewhere and there are only so many patients around.

    I like Willing\’s idea put a cap on how much the laywers make and see how many go to court.



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