Posted by Tina
“Health care run by trial lawyers” Washington Times Editorial
The question, posed by a town hall patriot: “There is $200 billion of savings over 10 years if you have [lawsuit] reform, and nobody loses but the lawyers. Why isn’t [lawsuit] reform in the bill?”
The response by Howard Dean: “When you go to pass an enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put in it, the more enemies you make. The reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth…. This bill has enough enemies. The more groups you take on, the more enemies you make.”
The brilliance of the Washington Times editorial writers: “the answer was good only in that it accurately described the political situation. On substance, the answer was terrible. Neither Mr. Moran nor Mr. Dean could defend the lack of tort reform in the bill because there is no good, substantive reason for refusing to rein in the wealthy plaintiffs’ bar. There is no good, substantive reason for refusing to protect doctors from ridiculous jackpot justice while the rest of us pay through the nose for the cost of additional malpractice insurance. ** The only reason the lawyers escape scot-free is that they give so much money — 95 percent of their federal campaign donations in virtually every election cycle — to the Democrats who are writing the bills.