Posts Tagged health care reform
A Non-Scandal in Wisconsin
An ultra liberal special interest group called One Wisconsin Now has accused Republican Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen’s office of a “gross abuse of power” and putting “politics above the law.” Exactly what offense did Van Hollen’s office commit? Basically being against President Obama’s government take-over of the health care system and seeking information about joining other AGs in a Constitutional challenge to this monstrosity.
If that sounds like a big nothing-burger to you, you’re not alone. The most interesting thing here is not the non-scandal, but the extent to which a tangled web of special interest groups is spending millions of dollars to try to turn policy disagreements into criminal acts – or at least create an appearance of impropriety that can be used in the next campaign.
One Wisconsin Now is the political arm of the Institute for One Wisconsin. The Institute is bankrolled in part by – drum roll please – hedge fund billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute. What does One Wisconsin do with the $$? Well, some of it gets funneled to another political operation called the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund. Other members of the club include politically-motivated unions like the SEIU and AFSCME.
One Wisconsin Now also tries to drag down the American Justice Partnership, which I run, for contributing to the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) – a group dedicated to supporting conservative, rule-of-law AGs such as JB Van Hollen.
Groups like One Wisconsin Now know how deeply unpopular Obamacare is with the people of Wisconsin. They understand the bill was steamrollered through Congress despite questions over the constitutionality of several provisions. Now they’re trying to browbeat and intimidate AGs like JB Van Hollen for daring to challenge their dream of socialized medicine.
The Importance of the Attorney General
As expected eleven state Attorneys General are bringing suit challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform bill just signed into law by President Obama. The suit focuses on the law’s mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
The threatened action suggests the controversial measure is about to move from the legislative realm into what could become a protracted and messy fight in the courts. The attorneys general say they will sue once President Obama signs the bill into law. They are pledging to take their battle all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Newly elected Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli lays out the crux of the argument from the article penned by Warren Richey:
“Just being alive is not interstate commerce. If it were, there would be no limit to the US Constitution’s commerce clause and to Congress’s authority to regulate everything we do.”
For years we’ve promoted the importance of the office of AG and this development cements our belief. No matter how this turns out it’s great to see these 11 Attorneys General standing up against big government mandates.
House Dems on Med Mal Reform: “Just Kidding!”
Remember President Obama’s talk about pilot programs to test medical malpractice reform as a way to control health care costs? Well, it’s looking more and more like it was all done with a wink and a nod to the trial bar.
The Washington Times editorial “Chloroform for tort reform” exposes the truth:
With several restrictive qualifications and entirely at the discretion of the secretary of Health and Human Services, the provision, indeed, promises “an incentive payment” for states to try lawsuit reform. Then comes the kicker, though: The bill allows such incentive payments only if “the law does not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.”
This provision is a poison pill. Fee limits or damage caps are the two most popular lawsuit reforms in states across the country, and they are demonstrably effective at cutting malpractice-insurance rates and attracting more doctors to the states that embrace them. To pretend to encourage tort reform while punishing states that actually implement reforms is akin to encouraging a diet while assessing fines for losing weight. It’s dishonest, and it ought to be a deal killer.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is behind the ploy that suggests a cynicism beyond the pale. While it’s heartening that the Congressional majority believes that publicly opposing legal reform is hazardous to one’s political health it’s equally distressing that they may just get away with their disingenuous plan to kill it with a poison pill.
It’s time to step up, speak out and shine a spotlight on this sham.
A Funny Bone: One Doc’s Prescription for the Legal Industry
With all the heat and light surrounding Obamacare, surprisingly little noise has come from the doctors on the front lines of providing health care. Until now.
In a Wall Street Journal piece titled “A Doctor’s Plan for Legal Industry Reform” Dr. Richard B. Rafal offers a hysterical, tongue-in-cheek look at how doctor’s might improve the legal profession. The New York radiologist offers to turn the tables on the very lawyers that drive up health care costs with the filing of frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits.
Since lawyers are key architects of the proposed health care reform, Rafal reasons that doctors ought to be able to return the favor and oversee reform of the legal industry.
“I will gladly volunteer for the important duty of controlling and regulating lawyers. Since most of what lawyers do is repetitive boilerplate or pushing paper, physicians would have no problem dictating what is appropriate for attorneys. We physicians know much more about legal practice than lawyers do about medicine.”
“Physician committees can decide whether lawyers are necessary in any given situation.”
Dr. Rafal’s eleven proposals for reforming the legal system include: Legal DRGs, the rationing of legal care, physician controlled legal review and others. They’re sure to elicit laughter from most everyone but the trial bar.
Check out the full piece to see how applying the proposed “reforms” to health care would affect the legal profession.
Selling out doctors to pay off trial lawyers
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on September 4th, 2009
By NEWT GINGRICH & WAYNE OLIVER | 9/3/09 2:26 PM EDT
Civil justice reform, which is sometimes referred to as “tort reform,” is not addressed in any health reform bill now being considered by Congress. As a matter of fact, civil justice reform is rarely being discussed even though it should be a critical component of every discussion and in every legitimate health reform bill.
Physicians understand its importance. And so do the American people. Many are beginning to wonder why it’s not in any bill.
Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, at a town hall meeting in Virginia last week said, “Tort reform is not in the bill because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers. And, that is the plain and simple truth.”
Tort Reform Is Key To Health Reform
By TIGER JOYCE | Posted Monday, August 24, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Though common-sense Americans have repeatedly raised the issue of tort reform while discussing health care legislation with members of Congress during town hall meetings this month, too many lawmakers and analysts still stubbornly insist that medical liability lawsuits do not contribute significantly to rising health care costs. These lawmakers and analysts are wrong.
A 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study found that four out of every 10 medical malpractice lawsuits filed in America each year were “without merit.” Nonetheless, defending against such lawsuits imposes costs on doctors, hospitals and insurers that invariably are passed on to health care consumers.
Beyond the obvious costs of litigation, more subtle costs related to the practice of “defensive medicine” are contributing to runaway health care inflation.
How much? In a Massachusetts Medical Society survey published last November, 83% of Bay State physicians cited the fear of being sued in their decisions to practice defensive medicine. Read the rest of this entry »