Health reform must include legal reform
by admin on 16/06/09 at 10:44 am
Charleston Daily Mail
June 16, 2009
Earlier this month, President Obama proposed budget rules that would allow Congress to borrow billions of dollars to jump-start his health care plan.
A public that has been buried in debt to save everything from banks to insurance companies to auto companies is going to take a dim view of that.
The president might have more luck selling his vision if he cut medical costs up front instead. One way to do that is to end the titanic struggle between the medical profession and the legal profession, which has played out in every state of the union.
Legal costs are one of the factors that inflate health costs, and it’s time to come to terms with that.
Trial lawyers are major contributors to Democratic campaigns, and the president told members of the American Medical Association Monday that he will not cap medical malpractice awards. He did say, vaguely, that he is willing to address medical liability issues somehow.
That’s not an auspicious start.
