Healthcare: Let's Start With Tort Reform

While Washington gripes about the rising cost of healthcare, they are neglecting to address one critical cause of skyrocketing prices: frivolous lawsuits.

The halls of Congress are chock full of lawyers. Do you think they'll ever address the issue of their buddies filing frivolous lawsuits? I'd expect Obama to return to Reaganomics first.

An underclass of people has developed in this country. Their mission? To get as much money as possible for blaming someone else. Personal responsibility has fallen by the wayside, and honest people are left picking up the tab (again).

If a doctor advises a course of treatment that you choose not to follow, how is it the fault of the doctor? While grossly negligent malpractice (amputating the wrong limb, etc.) deserves its day in court, there is none for the people who sue their doctor because they have a scar after surgery. How is a doctor to win in a case like that? Let them possibly die or face litigation over a scar; that's their double-edged sword.

Here are a few examples of frivolous medical lawsuits that have made the Stella Awards Case Log. The award was named after Stella Liebeck, the New Mexico woman who spilled hot coffee in her lap and successfully sued McDonald's for an undisclosed amount. These will make you sick. Thank Heaven you don't have to wait for treatment.

• Obese, cigarette-smoking woman with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a family history of coronary artery disease suffers the expected heath problems associated with those risk factors. Why? Because her doctors didn't force her to change her habits! She sues for $1 million.
• Women sue doctors and hospital for "Needless Infliction of Emotional Distress" because they witnessed doctors rushing to aid their very ill mother. Had their case succeeded (it went all the way up to the California Supreme Court!), doctors and hospitals would have been forced to keep family members away anytime they are doing any sort of medical procedures which, let's face it, are often ugly to watch. They put your right to be there for your family members at risk.
• Schoolboy running for bus runs into a teacher. She sues the 11-year-old, claiming he "negligently and carelessly" ran into her at an "excessive rate of speed," which caused "severe and multiple injuries".
• Dying man eats a McDonald's burrito but can't take the spices in it. Wife, upset that she didn't get a refund or a free Happy Meal when she complained, decides to sue.
• Woman claims a bad hair treatment at a salon was enough to cause her emotional distress, depression and to "shut down" so much that she was caused to retire early from her university teaching job and a side job -- and the jury buys it!
• 375-pound woman steps on 53-year-old grave, which collapses under her weight. "I thought I was in a Stephen King movie," she says, which is apparently sufficient grounds for a lawsuit.
• Man uses restroom stall in city building that doesn't have a door knob. When he sticks his hand through the hole, he gets hurt -- and, of course, sues. He wins almost $3 million. His occupation? City claims examiner.
• Woman gets locked in a storage unit and didn't ever call out for help. She ended up being locked in the dark for 63 days. When she sued the storage company for $10 million, the jury wasn't allowed to hear why she didn't call out for help: she's mentally ill. They found in her favor, but were still so suspicious of her story they "only" awarded her $100,000.
• Attorney cleaning his pool decides to knock palm frond from overhead electrical wires. When he's quite naturally electrocuted, his wife knows who's to blame: the electric company and the company who sold him the pool skimmer, of course!

These are just some of the reasons that healthcare and insurance premiums have gone into the stratosphere. Tort reform NEEDS TO HAPPEN regardless of whether Congress passes the Obamacare Socialized Medicine Act. Call your representatives and senators and tell them to vote against Obamacare and start pushing for tort reform. Their jobs depend on it.

One Part of the Healthcare Equation

Yesterday, while waiting for my son to get done with summer school (Day 6 of 20; UGH!), I was chilling out listening to Rush. The topic, of course, was Obamascare, and one of his talking points caught my attention as something we have overlooked in our discussions about this hideous program: tort reform.

Part of the reason that health care in this country is so expensive is because of the litigious nature of some people. If a doctor is so incompetent that they amputate the wrong limb, he or she should permanently lose their license to practice. The problem lies in those who are looking to make quick money in a settlement and, along with their slimy lawyers, nitpick about every little detail.

There was a time when I was growing up where doctors were able to practice medicine very efficiently, often for little or no cost.

The family doctor we had growing up was a man of many talents. He delivered my dad, me, and my brother. He was also a certified surgeon and often performed minor surgeries in his office under local anesthesia (He cut a piece of glass out of my foot that way). When we got sick, my mother would often call the office, and nine times out of ten she spoke with the nurse, who was equally as knowledgable about medicine as Doc Cam. Ann was the one we saw most often. If you went to the office and had to see Doc Cam, you were REALLY sick. And if he referred you to someone else, you were probably on your way to the Pearly Gates. My parents often paid what they could, and Doc Cam was okay with that. In all those years, not once was litigation a thought. Even when my mom and my brother almost lost their lives during childbirth, suing Doc was not a thought.

Today, doctors have to worry about making mistakes. Yes, we are talking about what could potentially be mistakes with grave consequences (no pun intended), but at what point does the gravy train stop? The cost of health care has skyrocketed in recent years for a few reasons:

1. Research and Development of new drugs and procedures -- Let's face it. If you want the best medical treatment on the planet, it's going to cost for the latest cutting-edge treatments. Sorry, but it boils down to the business end of medicine.
2. Third-party insurance companies -- When someone is getting medical treatment and not having to pay for it entirely, they normally don't care what the cost is. Couple that with greedy doctors trying to soak the insurance companies, and you've got out-of-control costs.
3. Litigation costs -- It's amazing that being a doctor nowadays is going to cost you a hefty bundle of money in malpractice premiums. Also, a doctor will sometimes order unnecessary tests to cover their butts and avoid a lawsuit. This shouldn't be.

While we've all heard about the first two, I'd like to talk about the third.

As many of you know, I have two autistic kids. Their disorder, to me, is a way for God to teach me something (and He has; patience), not a free ticket through life. Many people, though, feel that their children's "disabilities" HAD to be caused by something the obstetrician did because Heaven knows that they would NEVER have a special needs child. This has led to even ADHD being blamed on a "birth injury". The doctor is in a position of settling a lawsuit or possibly losing more by fighting it. Guess what they usually do because it's cheaper. Then the malpractice premiums go up, and to recoup that cost, their fees go up. An OB/GYN in Massachusetts can pay between $75,000 and $100,000 a year for malpractice insurance. If they don't deliver babies and only stay with gynecology, the rates drop to $30,000-$50,000 a year. And it's all because of litigation by those wanting fast money from someone else.

The lawyers in today's society are just as much to blame. While they convince a client that they have an airtight case by doing a little word manipulation (define "is"), they're seeing nothing but dollar signs. The average contingency fee is between 25 and 40 percent. They have no qualms about ruining a good doctor's reputation based on a client's word if they're going to get almost half. What a bunch of unethical ghouls they are. Evidently, "shame" is something law school doesn't teach because most attorneys don't have any. Disgusting.

While I don't claim to have all the answers, I do believe there are a few things that can be done to limit needless lawsuits against medical professionals:

1. Allow doctors to do what they can to lower costs without compromising care -- There are those few rare doctors out there who try to keep costs down. My doctor knows I have a copay for meds, so he always gives me samples to help out. He said he'd rather save me the copay than give them to a welfare recipient. Let doctors decide where to make the cuts necessary to lower costs.
   
2. Let general practitioners have more freedom to do certain things in the office -- My doctor checked out a lump on my finger (a wart; never had one didn't know what it was) and told me to put duct tape on it. He could've sent me to a dermatologist unnecessarily, but he was confident enough in his diagnosis and treatment suggestions. The duct tape is actually working. These are the kind of doctors we need. Doctors shouldn't have to fear a lawsuit because they didn't refer a patient to a specialist.
3. Weed out the truly unnecessary lawsuits -- It amazes me how many people will have surgery (sometimes life-saving) and then sue the doctor because they have a scar. Sometimes, they actually win. I went to my gynecologist yesterday for a checkup. By some sick people's twisted logic, couldn't I go to an attorney and say that I was harassed because he touched my genital area? These are the venomous word games that attorneys will play with the English language. By the way, I love my gynecologist; very professional and an all-around great guy.
4. Weed out the truly bad doctors -- Let's face it. At one time or another, we've all run across a doctor that you look at and go "HUH?" There are some really bad doctors out there, and they need to go. They shouldn't even be cutting vegetables for a salad let alone doing surgery. Their incompetence has fueled the litigation fire, and the flames keep spreading. Blatantly gross negligence is unexcusable, and those whose lives are completely shattered by the wrong limb being amputated, the wrong organ removed, or where the result is death for what initially is a minor ailment deserve compensation.
5. Limit the attorney's contingency fee to 5% maximum -- While I don't feel attorneys should get anymore than what they charge by the hour, if they're going to file ridiculous lawsuits, take away the incentive.
6. Let doctors be the jury in cases that go to trial -- According to the Constitution, we are entitled to a jury of our peers. Well, having housewives, mechanics, and factory workers sitting on a jury where a doctor is the defendant isn't a jury of peers, is it? I say that once all the evidence and testimony are gathered, remove all personal information (use aliases) and turn it over to a team of medical experts to review and give their opinion. That would be more like it.
7. You file a frivolous lawsuit and lose, you pay all costs -- enough said.

Tort reform is long overdue. While many have tried to pass it before to no avail, we've got to pressure our legislators to support any tort reform measure that comes along. That would open up the free market to help lower the cost of health care. You cannot break the laws of economics and come out ahead.