Consumer Law

Huff Post Repost: It's Time to Call Their Bluff; "Defensive Medicine" is a Fraud

By Joe Consumer

This week, our brand new U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced that he'll be convening hearings soon "to examine the constitutional concerns surrounding ObamaCare and the role medical malpractice reform can play in reducing health care costs." In other words, we once again have to hear about the Republicans' one big health care idea - taking away injured patients' legal rights.

As usual, Chairman Smith grumbled about what he called the "widespread practice of 'defensive medicine' that drives up the cost of health care." Ah, here we go again.

We presume Chairman Smith was referring to surveys like the one which appeared in the June 28, 2010, Archives of Internal Medicine, another in a long line of anonymous doctor "surveys" conceived by organized medicine, seeking responses to questions about these very hot button political topics: "defensive medicine" and medical malpractice lawsuits. Like all such surveys, its purpose was to give the impression of a scientifically conducted poll so the results could be trotted out before lawmakers to demonstrate support for the pollsters' pre-defined legislative agenda - i.e., restrictions on patients' legal rights.

Keep reading.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on January 06, 2011 (boomark / email).