Pelosi Health Care Bill Blows a Kiss to Trial Lawyers
by Capitol ConfidentialThe health care bill recently unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over 1,900 pages for a reason. It is much easier to dispense goodies to favored interest groups if they are surrounded by a lot of legislative legalese. For example, check out this juicy morsel to the trial lawyers (page 1431-1433 of the bill):
Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.
So, you can’t try to seek alternatives to lawsuits if you’ve actually done something to implement alternatives to lawsuits. Brilliant! The trial lawyers must be very happy today!
While there is debate over the details, it is clear that medical malpractive lawsuits have some impact on driving health care costs higher. There are likely a number of procedures that are done simply as a defense against future possible litigation. Recall this from the Washington Post:
“Lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, congressional budget analysts said today — a substantial sum that could help cover the cost of President Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s health system. New research shows that legal reforms would not only lower malpractice insurance premiums for medical providers, but would also spur providers to save money by ordering fewer tests and procedures aimed primarily at defending their decisions in court, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).”
Stay tuned. There are certainly many more terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad provisions in this massive bill.
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649 Comments
This entire Health Care issue is making me sick.
I am appalled at the hubris and contempt that this CON-gress has shown to America. Quite frankly, it is time for a purge.
Wow, that's a nice catch. I'm hoping that is in the talking points of every single Republican making a public statement for the next week or so (along with Howard Dean's quote about the Dems not wanting to upset the trial lawyers who give them so much money). At some point the Republicans need to get a more coherent message to make the most of their limited coverage in the MSM. People will start paying attention if the message makes sense to them.
Yes, 1900 opportunites of illness!
You have got to be kidding me.
"We'll fix the broken healthcare system, but only if healthcare providers promise to not change anything. We want to give the same service at thrice the price, because that's improvement."
Looks like we may have to melt the congressional phones again. The PEOPLE stopped the big amnesty push a couple of years ago, so the PEOPLE will have to stop this Orwellian nightmare as well. They don't stop, but neither do we.
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Write, fax, call. Repeat.
oh boy i get to call barbara boxer and diane feinstein. tried that on the gun control one. feinstein's assistant was a real sweetheart getting the information for me and although i didn't agree with his answer i was pleased that i was able to get my message through to feinstein. boxer's assistant was a real female dog and simply said "if she wants you to know her opinion then she will state her opinion" and i said "here's my opinion: tell her she works for US and she needs to give her opinion. oh, and I'm against the gun treaty with the UN. tell her that" UGH self righteous political leftists.
"Blowing a kiss" is a very understated way of describing this.
"America is at that awkward stage.
It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
Today I asked my legislators if they really believe this President can deliver "health care" at a trillion dollars without adding "one dime" to the deficit?
What else are they not telling the truth on?
How much IS this massive government intrusion into personal health decisions going to cost us? Who is going to pay for it?
Signed,
OUTRAGED
This is collusion of the worst order.
REPUBLICANS ARE RUINING THIS COUNTRY. OUR RETURNING AMERICAN HERO'S NEED HEALTH COVERAGE. THEY CAN'T GET IT FROM THE EXISTING HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY BECAUSE OF THEIR "PREEXISTING CONDITION". ONLY THE LEADER OBAMA CAN SAVE THE US HEALTH INDUSTRY. PLEASE, THINK OF OUR TROOPS AND SUPPORT THIS BILL. YES WE CAN
The Democrats are in bed with the trial lawyers. What did you expect. Reform you can believe in. What a joke.
You are an idiot.
Knobbers for all the shysters.
All the whores aren't from K Street.
Check out this parody of the Dems' view of health care by lawyers: http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-plan-ca...
Vero nos possumus
our medicine will be RATIONED folks. get used to it. fortunately just as many millions of liberals will die waiting for their FREE medicine as any.
S_T_M is quite a joker. Only this isn't too funny. Pelosi and company thinking they are going to pull the wool over everyone's eyes …. now that is funny.
Next Tuesday is first time for us to be heard. Even if its not a national election go to your polls. Lets show some numbers now. STart sending a message now.
2010 VOTE EM OUT.. Elections have consequences
A kiss? This is full on carnal knowledge.
Watch me use "the troops" as a political prop! I'm a Democat-so it's A-OK!
AND IF I TYPE IN ALL CAPS I SEEM SMARTER TOO!
you idiot…wounded veterans ARE covered. They receive healthcare. It was your "savior" Obama that wanted to take that away from them about 6 months ago. Probably didn't hear that on MSNBC though, right? He wanted to require wounded war veterans to obtain private insurance so they could save 15 Billion bucks to pay for this monstrosity!
The evidence that says that malpractice suits drive costs up is tricky.
Doctors practicing "defensive medicine" by doing unnecessary things (which drives up costs) won't actually have any impact on their liability for malpractice. They do it anyway because they think it will. Medmal suit-related costs could be pretty easily offset by simply educating doctors about the legal meaning of malpractice, and what will and will not lead to liability.
Besides, those damages caps don't really put a dent in costs. Texas implemented caps in (I think) 2003, and malpractice insurance premiums went up double digits the next year. The insurers came back to the legislature with their tails between their legs and had to admit that medmal caps only saved about 1% of their costs. Oops.
Wow…that's funny! Let's see….who controls the house, the senate, the white house? Who has controlled the house for the last 7 years? Maybe you should retake civics class?
Yes we can…wretch our guts out over angst that all of this socialist hypocrisy is creating for us taxpayers who are the ones footing the bill for Washington's excess.
Just remember, it is about reducing the profits of insurance companies. It is not about limiting the income of trial lawyers, the ones that have made this country as great as it is. If it wasn’t for trial lawyers, we would be living in caves and running down our food.
Veterans already get coverage when they return home through the Office of Veteran's Affairs (the "VA"). But don't take my word for it. Read and educate yourself: http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-...
what a c@#$
We have the 2010 election upcoming. For those we don't remove there we can always exercise our 2nd Amendment Right.
"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius!"
The difference twain you an me, you find your Latin at google.
Since we can't declare war on terrorists, perhaps we can declare war on Trial Lawyers.
Why dont you get educated on a subject, before you post your liberal Drool.
Question
For your mental health, you need about six months of truth serum from FOX NEWS!
Pelosi is evil
These people are selling you all out……….and you love it! You keep voting for them and hoping for "freebies", but it winds up costing you twice as much and you don't even realize that it's the government that is really getting all the money! Have you ever bought a lottery ticket hoping to win millions? It's funny – the Government wins every week – every Big Drawing – and they never even bought a ticket………………………bozos.
America voted. American decided that YES WE CAN. Stand in the way of PROGRESS and we will REMOVE YOU. BY FORCE if required. Don't FORGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE BRAINS OF THIS COUNTRY. Without US, where would YOU BE? MCSAME, ADOLPH BECK, AND RUSH LAUGHABLE and their band of CRONY REPUBLICANTS are trying to HIJACK THIS GREAT COUNTRY. You DONT LIKE AMERICA? STEP OUT, GO BACK TO ALASKA, SUCEDE and sit around PRAYING WITH YOUR GREAT LEADER PALIN.
This IS GETTING REAL
Tell Congress to stuff this bill back in the corrupt, tyranny loving, pea-size brain of Pelosi.
Fax your reps for Free, upload letters for others to use, start an email campaign or petition at:
http://www.QuestionObama.com/activism-center
GET ACTIVE!
Pelosi has never run a business, never had to actually balance a budget, never had to work in the real world. But never mind all that. She's got a solution and she'd like to give it a try with just a trillion in help from all of us. Never mind that the trial lawyers get to keep getting rich. Never mind that conservative ideas haven't been listened to. America is history unless we stop this liberal shell game.
You are kidding… or you are a trial lawyer!
For S T M : Heil Hitler, er, Heil Obama, to you too! DemocRATS are Nazis. Obamacare is a fascist scheme to control the American people. And oh, by-the-way, it is interesting how the black Hitler, Obama, sees to it that his scrawny brats get the H1N1 vaccine, but about 270 million Americans can’t get it. Typical of fascists everywhere: take care of your own and screw the rest. Say, I’ll just be that little fascist-communist George Soros got the H1N1 vaccine,too, along with the Omama brats, and the crooked Mayor Daley. As Winter comes on and cases of H1N1 rise, Obama and his health nazis will use that crises to force his fascist Obamacare on the American people, as is; “Form two lines — those on the left get to go to the doctor (Hello, Dr. Josef Mengele); those on the right get to go to the camps. God save us from the black Nazi Obama.
In a country of so many nationalities and ethnic groups, each unwilling to bow to a common Western originated national culture and ethos, the lawyers are the lubricating system that causes each group to assail the other. The lawyers are also the lubricant for the greed that people have when faced with the possibility of making a lot of money from a professional's mistake, above and beyond the patient financial needs, i.e. pain and suffering. The lawyers are also the product of a humanities bachelor degree, which is notorious for developing idealism favoring the "disadvantaged" which in itself is the political tool of the Democratic Party. Pelosi is simply following what she was taught and what she believes to the entire country's disadvantage.
Nancy Pelosi kinds of reminds me of a turtle… you know a tortless!
Like Geekmom, I live in the alternate universe ruled by Boxer and Feinstein. They simply don't care unless you are a maladjusted trannie looking to have someone pay for your hormone therapy. I'm done with this nonsense. It's time for the folks who work 10 hours a day, pay their taxes, hire folks and quietly raise their families to THROW THESE PATHETIC BUMS OUT and block their further destruction of our country. Change…what a pathetic joke!
Yeah, the right to practice medical malpractice is embedded in the Constitution. How dare we punish doctors who are now gods in our secular world? How dare we deny large pharma the ability to dump risky drugs on the market at top dollar. The Constitution guarantess these people the right to kill and maime others.
Just say “No.” [As in, “No, we do not have a plan, but we all do have great health insurance paid for by the American people.”
If you passed a law requiring mandatory arbitration then everything would be fine. You haven’t capped either damages or fees.
Our returning American Heroes needs jobs too….and now they come back to massive unemployment because people like Obama and Barney frank forced banks to make loans to people that couldn't afford them and it crashed the whole system. I am thinking of our troops when I don't support this bill…..I'm thinking they should be pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan and repositioned on the US southern border to keep people who are "ILLEGAL ALIENS" (That's "UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS" to you S_T_M) from coming into this country and getting on the dole…………people like you make me sick – but I have insurance cuz I work – so I can go to the DR.
I have heard that quote before. You are talking apples and oranges, Zach. Malpractice premiums are not directly tied to all money saved in the administration of health care. The market is made by a third party.
You have a right to your health, but nobody is born with the entitlement that anybody should take care of them, or take care of anything for them…if you believe otherwise, then please, feel free to finance the whole thing yourself and take your hand off my wallet and my opportunity to succeed.
That you, or anyone else I don't know continues to exist leaves no positive impact on my life. There is a line of freeloaders in the US waiting to populate the world with another in your place. Actually they are populating it right now.
Yes republicans are ruining this country, but so are the democrats, CONGRESS is ruining this country. The troops have health coverage. Leader Obama? please
it is a generally accepted truth that lawyers represent the best society has to offer, let me tell you…
Wow, I mean WOW!!!
Is anyone else tired of what this Pelosi led Congress has been doing for the past 3 years?
Fear not Constitution lovers; the 2010 election cycle is right around the corner. Reid will be gone from office and Pelosi will no longer be Speaker and her and her ilk will be the minority party again.
The best way to reduce health care costs is to kill all the lawyers!
This is why they tried so hard to keep anyone from reading it before the vote.
you know what they say- if 'con' is the opposite of 'pro', then congress must be the opposite of progress.
S T M is an illegal immigrant, don’t pay any attention to his comments.
This Bill is 1,900 pages long and Pelosi has fiqured out there are 1,900 ways to screw the Tax Payer.
Actually, just remove "a kiss" from the sentence………"Blowing" sums up both the bill and the action the Speaker is trying to perform on the trial lawyers.
Pelosi continually gets away with this sort of deceitful subterfuge because her voting constitutency is made up of leftwing wackoids who don't care about the consequences of their own selfishness.
And she is appaently too stupid to understand any of it.
Tricare and VA benefits
Rachel,
feel free to move to Venezuela. The oppressive thing about a liberal is is that their vote actually takes away freedoms from an individual other than him/herself to suit an end they think is appropriate, because they are enlightened, they know what is best for the collective…
I don't want to be part of any collective with you.
Excellent site!
You are a walking talking example of all the things that are wrong with PUBLIC education.
Many Doctors are paid by the number of procedures they perform. Is it possible that some of them recommend tests so that can charge more and not because of malpractice…it is just a thought.
Hey stupid – you have obviously never served in the armed forces. If they come back with a "pre-existing condition" they are considered "service-connected" and covered FOR LIFE by the VA health care system. I think it has worked that way since Lincoln was President – keep reading and eventually you'll catch up.
PS If you don't like the VA (the original government-provided health care) then why do you want the rest of us to get something similar.
A lib. i know was complaining about how the disabilities act makes it hard on small businesses, and the frivolous lawsuits and what not, so i told him the trial lawyers were the biggest contributors to his democratic heros, didnt seem to bother him. Libs are incapable of self analysis of their contradictory ideology because they are so vain and could never be wrong. Conservatism has some schizophrenic aspects too such as support of the death penalty on the one hand and anti-abortion. Libs support abortion but are against the death penalty. The difference being libs have no problem killing the innocent and conservatives dont have a problem serving the ultimate punishment to someone who is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Though I did not agree with Newt Gingrich's extreme position of death penalty for drug dealers.
Here is what the New York Times had to say about the impact of malpractice caps in 2007
Four years after Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting awards in medical malpractice lawsuits, doctors are responding as supporters predicted, arriving from all parts of the country to swell the ranks of specialists at Texas hospitals and bring professional health care to some long-underserved rural areas.
The influx, raising the state’s abysmally low ranking in physicians per capita, has flooded the medical board’s offices in Austin with applications for licenses, close to 2,500 at last count.
….
But the article isnt all positive, they also say that "some critics, including liability lawyers, question whether the changes have left patients more vulnerable"
But they follow that with this statement which makes it look like malpractice costs did not go up.
" With doctors facing reduced malpractice exposure, they say, many have cut back on their insurance, making it harder for plaintiffs to collect damages."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/us/05doctors.ht...
Our soldiers have government provided healthcare you moron…(which sucks by the way) if you want to know how bad it is support the Pelosi bill and you too can have crappy heathcare!!!
Have you ever seen such arrogence by our “leaders”? This must be the biggest middle finger salute to well over half the country I’ve ever witnessed. Al we can do is make them pay in a year from now. Or, put so much pressure on them now that their phone lines melt.
STM? STFU!
She looks like the singer from Aerosmith, Tyler, not quite as attractive though.
well, that's some consolation, I guess
Nancy is just making sure John Edwards will be able to pay child support for his love child. Trial lawyers aren't worth a bucket of luke warm p
I've got my magazines loaded with ammo and my guns are clean – when this government comes to violate my 2nd Amendment Right ..
You da' man Capn… That is an astute statement…… and asyouknow…Jefferson was right !!!
the republicans need a leader to step forward and save the country from the left.
Rachel,
you should see how the collective does in a world without doctors.
One word – PATHETIC !!!!!
Come on, we all knew there was pork barrel stuff in there for special interests. Hey Nancy, how does it feel to be the most hated woman in America?
STM – get off the drugs dude.
the liberals have no limits to the ways they will screw America
FU LIBERALS
FU LIBERALS
FU LIBERALS
PELOSI IS A DANGER FOR THIS COUNTRY, JUST LOOK AT CALIFORNIA OR NOT LOOK.
Well …Dems have to pay back lawyers for their support – financial and otherwise. Since Texas limits amounts of lawsuits on doctors, I guess we would be excluded. As if we care – except we will have to pay for the privelege.
[...] Big Government: Pelosi Health Care Bill Blows a Kiss to Trial Lawyers [...]
Agreed.
Although, a more accurate description would likely be a little too X-rated.
…In any case, I think everyone here gets the idea.
Recent fact checking headlines in the Associated Press state that… “Health insurers posted a 2.2 percent profit margin last year, placing them 35th of 53 industries on the Fortune 500 list.”
I wonder what a typical trial lawyer’s profit margin might be… after “congressional expenses” of course.
What a crock of craaaaap STD…returning vets have the already existing healthcare vehicle called the Veteran Affairs Administration….are you a yo yo?
You are more than an idiot. You are like most of the infection in this country that needs to be terminated! What is STM? Stupid, Thoughtless, Moron ???
Wrong on both counts
1) Can't speak for Texas but since Mississippi around 2006 put in caps our premiums have dropped 10 – 15% each year (and will again for 2010). The rush to file suits the day before the new law took effect was comical. Once there was a cap there was suddenly no malpractice, at least as far as the plaintiffs' attorneys were concerned. No 33% of a fortune for them, no need to file all those papers. Therefore our malpractice carrier (a mutual organization that the insured parties actually own) doesn't have to pay too many lawyers to defend against suits, cutting costs substantially.
2) I learned as an intern that if someone wrote a recommendation in a chart you were bound to follow it, no matter how idiotic and unnecessary it seemed. If a CT scan seemed normal someone would recommend an MRI scan. When I asked "what do you expect to see on an MRI that wouldn't have been seen on the CT scan?" I never got an answer. However, I was told that IF (a big "IF") there was something there that could be seen on an MRI but not a CT, and IF (a second big "IF") this was later discovered, then I could get sued for not diagnosing it earlier. "How would you like to explain to a jury that an "expert" had recommended this 2 years ago and you ignored them then?" So all these unnecessary tests get done so my kids' college fund stays secure from hypothetical and highly improbable scenarios. That's the reality.
For Pelosi her affair may have started with a kiss. For S T M is that Pelosi’s closest relative, or did they just crawl out from under a rock?
Remove us? who is us? by force? really,that is a nice sensible response to a difference of opinion. Which is what this country was founded on. Why do liberals, just attack speech, and ignore, facts. STM I love America the way it is, or was. I do not want socialism,government intervention. If you like what they are proposing,why don't you go to England, France, Europe, then you will find out how well you have it here.
Idiots like you are what will ruin the country. Tax the "rich" until there are no rich to tax… then how do you pay for all your socialist programs? If the liberals are so smart, maybe they could figure this one out…The liberals have no brains!
MORON…PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
So anyone who is for this, please answer this question for me . . . because I truly don't know the answer. Who in the world is going to want to practice medicine after this? Honestly, I think the entire Washington, D. C. is nothing more than a cesspool at this point!
Another Democratic gift to the blood sucking lawyers. This is one issue even my liberal friends don't dispute and yet the core Dems will not listen to their constituents.
Can the American public be spit in the face any by Pelosi more clearly? If this does not inspire millions of letters and calls to your reps you deserve the horrendous consquences
Its hard work to extract Gold from a mountain. So just have the mountain come to you.
If memory serves me right… this looks like a similar plot that happened years ago to the Tobacco industries… "Reform.!. Reform! ..Those horrible people in the tobacco industry… to the tune of an extorted check to the political pundits to the tune of 2 billion… if I recall….that money was to go to health care….. hmmmmm where did it go? Pensions. .. I can only imagine how fast…both parties are scurrying to find a vault big enough for the Flood of cash coming in from Lucrative MEDICAL lobby Cha…ching…$$$. As ALWAYS….. Follow the money trail….
If they gave 2 craps about health care. OR YOU for that matter… they would go after the billions lost to Medicare fraud… Hey they can’t even run a "Cash for Clunkers Program". And the Katrina.. Mess OYE!..
Doesn’t anyone remember.. the old adage.. “I’m from the Government and I’m here to Help You” is really suppose to be a joke..
As Jackie Mason once said.. “Politicians. Should be checked for STD’s.. Because you cant Screw that many people and not catch something”
I would LOVE TO SEE the politicians.. feel the same things Americans are feeling… Lets Layoff.. 10% of the Politicians.. Lets give the rest a 30% pay cut with no cost of living.. do they even comprehend the cost to live.. nowadays.
Oh.. and if they are REALLY…IN-to .. the Wars…lets put a few of their children . on the front lines.. of afghanistan.
Here’s another Idea.
Get people back to WORK…. So they can afford health care.
So this is just another Attorney Employment Act? There are simply too many lawyers in congress.
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