Malpractice award limits pass in House (BS!!!)

[BamaLefty]

More BS.. some Dems supported this crap as well. Bye bye rights!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/29/damage.limits.ap/index.html

[bullimiami]

1. so insurance rates should be seriously dropping soon. right?

you betcha!!!!

[Straight Shooter]

3. That's right. All the stockholders in insurance companies take a hit.

:sarcasm:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. May they all be treated by an incompetent physician and lose

[bribri16]

4. There really won't be much left of "America" after this administration

is out of office. We will be just like any other two-bit fascist state with fake elected officals and a runaway military-intel cabal controlling things.

[DIKB]

5. So if they remove your manhood

you get a paltry 250k for your "Pain and Suffering" even though this will affect you for the REST OF YOUR LIFE ?!?!? There you go the repukes win this round again. Protecting negligent doctors from the viciousness of patients they've maimed.

[Bellamia]

7. War can remove your "manhhood".....

will you get 250k for fighting in Iraq?

[Bellamia]

6. What rights?

What makes you so angry about this bill passing Congress? Just what IS malpractice anyway, do you know?

[gratuitous]

8. The right to due process

It's in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Odd, don't you think, that the Republicans can trust 12 good persons and true to adjudicate life or death for a defendant in a criminal case, but apparently can't be trusted to apportion fault and assign a dollar amount to that fault when the defendant is a large corporation?

[flyarm]

9. and what happens when the victim of mal practice

is a senior woman like my mom..who had no income other than social security??

so she died and was worth nonthing as far as lost wages was concerned!

this makes me puke..there is no such thing as frivolous mal practice any more..my mother was killed by doctors..and i could not get a lawyer to take her case because she was "worth" nothing in their eyes!

this is bullshit!

[lostnfound]

10. Conyer's blog has it too:

How did I miss this?! Boy, BushInc sure delivers for their rich corporate constituents -- CAFTA, Energy Bill, and malpractice in a span of 3 days.

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000188.htm

The bill supersedes the law in all 50 states to cap non-economic damages, cap and limit punitive damages, cap attorney’s fees for poor victims, shorten the statute of limitations, eliminate joint and several liability, and eliminate collateral source. It not only applies to doctors, but also drug companies and HMO’s.

The bill totally ignores the real problem – price gouging by the insurance industry. This despite the fact that a recent study showed that over the last five years, medical malpractice claims were flat, while premiums charged to doctors increased by more than 100%.

The GOP Bill would cap damages for pain and suffering – that means if you lose your ability to bear children, if you are forced to bear excruciating pain, if you are permanently disfigured or crippled you lose out. Their proposed new statute of limitations ignores the fact that many injuries caused by malpractice or faulty drugs take years or even decades to manifest themselves. Their periodic payment provisions would allow insurance companies to indefinitely delay future financial obligations, and with no obligation to pay interest. The bill is also a gift to the drug companies. Under the legislation, producers of the Dalkon Shield, the Cooper-7 IUD, and other dangerous products, including the drug VIOXX would be able to avoid billions of dollars in damages.

Given that 5% of the health care professionals cause 54% of all medical malpractice injuries, the last thing we needed to do was exacerbate this problem while ignoring the true causes of the medical malpractice crisis in America. Of course, that’s what the House did today.

By the way, the Republicans brought this bill to the floor without the benefit of a committee hearing or markup, and totally shut out Democratic amendments. Democracy in action. Let’s hope the Senate Democrats give this bill a fitting burial.