Personal Injury Law

American Association for Justice Comments on U.S. Deficit Commission Report

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

Early this month a commission charged with looking at ways to cut the U.S. deficit publically released various parts of its plan. The scope of the plan is sweeping, cutting $4 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade, including steep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

In response to the release the president of the American Association for Justice, Gibson Vance, commented on some of the more troubling aspects of the report. He explained that the proposals outline by the commission would ultimately create a healthcare system that produces worse outcomes but is more expensive.

The outcome of the proposals would essentially leave many patients injured by medical errors with no options to address their losses?taxpayers would ultimately have to pay these costs. Also, it is unlikely that most Americans would prefer expensive new health courts or new health guidelines that will limit the work that physicians can perform, he explains. More government bureaucracy is not what is needed.

Completely silent in the report is any mention of the epidemic of medical mistakes that continue to plague hospitals across the country. Vance goes on to highlight that new research by both the New England Journal of Medicine and the Department of Health and Human Services indicate that there remains a crisis at many hospitals, with patients dying daily from preventable medical errors. The proposals outline by the debt commission do nothing to address that concern, weakens the healthcare system overall, and ultimately requires taxpayers to pay more.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).