Hot Air » Blog Archive » Tort reform? Try tort expansion

  Tort reform will never happen with Dems in charge.  It just won’t.

Every part of this is corrupt.  They attack the medical insurance providers who have a profit margin of 2.2%, but get in bed with the pharmaceutical companies with a 19+% profit.  They defend against tort reform. 

Nice words, Obama.  Reality shows that Joe Wilson shut up way too soon.  LIARS

First, there are already plenty of studies showing that malpractice abuse comprises anywhere between 2% and 10% of all medical costs today. For a $2 trillion a year industry, even the low end would mean $40 billion a year in cost savings, and $400 billion over the ten-year period that Obama uses as his scale. That’s five times what Obama got the pharmaceuticals to concede in order to bring ObamaCare’s costs down, in comparison. The question here should be why the pharmaceuticals had to knuckle under to the White House while the trial lawyers get off scot-free.

As Kimberly Strassel notes in the Wall Street Journal today, the answer is — because Congress wants to make it even easier for lawyers to exploit malpractice claims, and in new and dangerous ways:

During the markup of a bill in the Senate Health Committee, Republicans offered 11 tort amendments that varied in degree from mere pilot projects to measures to ensure more rural obstetricians. On a party line vote, Democrats killed every one. Rhode Island senator and lawyer Sheldon Whitehouse went so far as to speechify on the virtues of his tort friends. He did not, of course, mention the nearly $900,000 they have given him since 2005, including campaign contributions from national tort powerhouses like Baron & Budd and Motley Rice.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Tort reform? Try tort expansion