Consumer Law

The President and Medical Malpractice ? A Knife in the Stomach

By Joe Consumer

You may have heard last night that the President decided to throw victims of medical negligence under the bus. This was a very sad move not only for the people who will be hurt by this, but also for his apparent decision to pander to certain people on the right.  (Actually, this is unlike others on the right, like Ramesh Ponnuru who said in the National Review Online, ?Great: President Obama is open to one of the Republicans? crummiest ideas. There?s no need for a federal takeover of medical-malpractice rules.?) 

Here?s what the President said in his State of the Union address: ?I?m willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.?

To Republicans, that means capping compensation for the most seriously injured victims.  That's basically their only idea.  As was evident at last week?s House Judiciary Committee hearing, while they try to link caps to ?frivolous lawsuits? (which are not a problem to begin with), in reality caps only apply to the most seriously injured victims, who have already won their case and proven that the health care provider was negligent. 

Patients used to hear President George W. Bush constantly talk about ?frivolous lawsuits.?  We can?t speak for every patient today, but for those whose lives have been destroyed by medical malpractice and have tried to seek justice in court (like the parents of Olivia Cull), I expect that this was like another knife in their stomach.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 26, 2011 (boomark / email).