Consumer Law

Will Pres. Obama back Med Mal Deform?

By Kia Franklin

I'm confused.

Today, President Obama told attendees at the American Medical Association conference in Chicago that he is not supportive of the idea of capping medical malpractice damages:

"I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed. I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines," Obama told the physicians group.

But then, could it be a precurser of tort "reforms" to come? In his very next breath the President talks about defensive medicine: "I want to work with the AMA so we can scale back excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care."

Several sources tell us that, yes, the President is actually much more open to the idea of med mal "reform" than he lets on publicly:

The American Medical Association has long battled Democrats who oppose protecting doctors from malpractice lawsuits. But during a private meeting at the White House last month, association officials said, they found one Democrat willing to entertain the idea: President Obama.

In closed-door talks, Mr. Obama has been making the case that reducing malpractice lawsuits ? a goal of many doctors and Republicans ? can help drive down health care costs, and should be considered as part of any health care overhaul, according to lawmakers of both parties, as well as A.M.A. officials.

Please, enlighten me. What's going on here? My recent hiatus has obviously left me seriously under-informed. I'm going to go check out Barbara O'Brien's recent blogposts to on the issue. Maybe she can help me catch myself up.

Full post as published by TortDeform.com on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).