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Tort stuff

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As I mentioned in today’s Capitol Fax, go here, and look for the American Tort Reform Association’s article entitled “Winning the Tort War in Mississippi.”

Included in that study are some interesting strategies that tort reform supporters employed to win their fight in what was once a trial lawyer haven, including using the controversy over medical malpractice insurance to help spearhead a much broader reform agenda:

Because healthcare is so important in peopleâ€™s lives, doctors became the â€œtip of the spearâ€ in the tort reform fight. If there was a press conference, we always tried to have a number of doctors in their â€œwhite coatsâ€ there. The medical affordability and availability issue also resonated well with the public. People understood the problem when they heard about people having to drive two hours to find a doctor to deliver a baby.

If you go here, or here you’ll find some contrarian takes on the tort reform crisis. Then, try this and this and this for articles on why reform is needed.

Meanwhile, check out The Political Money Line, which has posted the top ten federal lobbyist expenditures by organization for the first six months of last year. They are:

Notice that at least seven of them (the Chamber groups, AMA, big Pharma, Philip Morris, the asbestos guys, and the hospitals) are all keenly interested in tort reform.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 3, 05 @ 4:05 pm

Comments

Rich,

Here a couple of other interesting things people may want to read regarding this issue. I saw a couple of articles a few months ago, but could only find a couple right now. Interestingly, ATRA put a letter from ATLA on their website. Caps are the battle cry of tort reformers, yet the nation’s largest Med Mal underwriter admits they have a negligible effect on rates in a regulatory filing in Texas where they are requesting a 19% increase. Read that again — 19% increase in one of the most restrictive states in the nation when it comes to ability to sue and recover. Let ‘em keep pulling the wool over people’s eyes; people will probably eventually learn, maybe when it’s too late, but hey, whatever. Publicly, caps are their holy grail, but tort reformers are really only interested in limiting their own liability and limiting access to the courts by average citizens. Just my opinion.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/12/06/ed.edit.malpractice.1206.html

http://www.atla.org/ConsumerMediaResources/Tier3/press_room/FACTS/medmal/AMALetter.aspx

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jan 4, 05 @ 2:31 pm
Seems like the anti-reformers are a little loose with the facts. How many of these 364 suits were settled before ever going to court? Does anyone really believe that the other 356 suits were settled in the physician’s favor?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 6, 05 @ 10:14 pm