How badly has the Tort Reform Bill hurt us?

[Silverhair]

This is an area where I just don't know very much. I haven't seen a lot on DU about it either, but I probably just missed it. Anyway, The New Republic is touting it as a significant victory for them.

Their view: Democrats have blocked tort reform for 10 years. Now, with their new majority, the Republicans have pushed it through with little Dem opposition. In fact some Dems even voted for it. Since trial lawyers are extremely heavy contributors to the Dems, they figure that the trial lawyers will see that contributing to the Democrats is not getting them anything and will decide to save their money. They also figure that other groups will see the Democrats as impotent and decide not to waste their money either.

So basically they are saying that passage of this bill shows the Democrats to be weak and unable to deliver, and will lose income because of that weakness. I don't know enough about Democratic Party finances to know if that is wishful thinking on their part - or if we have been hurt.

What do those more knowledgeable than I think?

[DemoTex]

1. Ask not if tort reform hurts 'us'; ask who it helps.

Can you say Halliburton? By extension, if it helps Halliburton, it hurts us.

[Silverhair]

3. I was hoping for something more thoughful.

That was a knee-jerk response. All you really said was that you hate Cheney and Halliburton. You didn't say anything about the impact of the bill on Democratic Party finances.

[DemoTex]

16. No I didn't.

You are testy today Silverhair. Get a grip. Take light responses in stride. Eh?

[johncoby2]

2. Tort Reform doesnt hurt anyone.

Tort Reform doesnt hurt anyone, until they need the services that tort reform has taken away from them.

In Texas where the homebuilding industry created tort reform, there is little if any protection for consumers. In fact you CANT take a builder to court anymore. They are protected by the state and homeowners are forced into arbitration which has been found to be EXTREMELY costly and grossly unfair.

The repugs have this down. They are attacking something that few people will ever need, so they are not outraged, until they need that something. Then it is too late.

It is a perfect scam.

[Silverhair]

4. And the impact on Democratic Party contributions will be...?? NT

[madmark]

5. its my second hand understanding

that it merely forced multi-state plaintiff class action torts into federal courts instead of state courts. You want to see a law that will hurt the middle class class and small business entrepreneurs, what till the new bankruptcy bill passes.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Healthcare in Texas for instance

A friend of mine went in for gastric bypass surgery. She was 49.
Sparing gory details--she was in ICU for many months.
Suffered endlessly. She was not at a satellite hospital,she was at a huge Dallas hospital that basically has a GB factory.
Her first night post-op, she had horrible pain that was unrelieved by morphine. Nurse ignored it. Kept administering morphine.
One of the little seen side effects of morphine is pulmonary edema.
Nurse didn't even pay attention to her when she was frothing at the mouth and gurgling. Nobody paid attention until the doc came by the next morning and transferred her to ICU to stabilize her and then took her back in to operate on her.
She had acute pulmonary edema...but the pain was actually caused by a perforation in her bowel secondary to the surgery.
If the nurse had been judicious and had called the doctor, my friend would have lived. Instead, she was ignored the entire first night and her symptoms were not taken seriously and she died.
Before she died, she ended up with a trach, feeding tubes and a colostomy.
I went to a prominent attorney in Dallas with her daughter with the case. He told her that yes she did have a case and yes there was malpractice that led to her death. However, since my friend was disabled due to her weight and only worked from home(making around $25k a year) that basically her life wasn't worth suing for under the tort reform laws. Any money she received would go to pay back Medicare and the hospital and the attorney fees.
He stated that only people making over $100k would get anything from a lawsuit and the people that made under that--well, their lives were deemed worthless and therefore they couldn't sue because of the caps.
My own personal rant here is that being a nurse, if this legislation is passed throughout the country, it will create a caste system in the hospital of the ones that can sue and that ones that can't.
Fill in the blanks on how the hospital corporations will staff the can's and cannot's. It makes me sick.

[Silverhair]

9. Granted. But my question relates to Trial lawyer contributions.

What effect will the fact that the bill passed have on contributions. Does the fact of bill passing signal weakness in the Party?

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Similar story

I have a friend who developed an infection from an injection she got in an emergency room. In order to save her life, they cut out the infection and put her on IV antibiotics for a year or more. Because they didn't save the stuff they cut out - which would have pinpointed the source of the infection - she had nothing to take to court. Every doctor who treated her agreed the injection was the source of the infection. Her attorney spent months interviewing the docs and nurses who took care of her. Her insurance company also hired an attorney. It looked like an open and shut case. But without the culture, she had no case.

Her medical bills (so far) have exceeded $100,000. She now spends $600 a month out of pocket on antibiotics and will most likely be on them for the rest of her life.

[F.Gordon]

7. Is this a solicitation?

Now, with their new majority, the Republicans have pushed it through with little Dem opposition. In fact some Dems even voted for it. Since trial lawyers are extremely heavy contributors to the Dems, they figure that the trial lawyers will see that contributing to the Democrats is not getting them anything and will decide to save their money. They also figure that other groups will see the Democrats as impotent and decide not to waste their money either.

Wow!!! One bill revised twice in the Senate because of Dem opposition is going to completely destroy Democratic contributions?

Sorry, but I can't take any question of this nature seriously when it is presented in the format of Repuke talking points. I really don't give a fuck what "they" think.

[Silverhair]

8. No.

I admitted my own ignorance in this area and asked for information. So you take it as an opportunity to attack me. Please note that I have a star next to my name and 1,000+ posts.

[F.Gordon]

10. Sorry. My bad. I forgot that DU had a "class system"

I don't know what I was thinking. Being critical of a fellow "upper class" DUer.

If you consider my post to be "an attack" on you, pray we never meet face to face.

You were soliciting repuke talking points. I was just merely asking the proper followup question. Hardly an "attack".....

[Silverhair]

11. I was NOT soliciting RW talking points.

I did state the RW claim. And I asked what the real situation was. I suppose to you that is a verbotten activity.

[F.Gordon]

12. Then you answered your own question

When was the last time you heard a repuke talking point that was accurate or factual?

[Silverhair]

15. That's mere knee jerk level response.

If one thinks that every time they say "white" then the truth is "black" or vice versa, then one has surrendered truly independent thought. You then define yourself as the opposite of them, instead of standing on your own.

They obviously scored a victory in the passage of the bill. My question, paraphrased is: How big is their victory? Is it worth all the celebrating that they are doing? Are there implications that go beyond just tort reform?

I think that those are some good questions that we need to be asking.

[teddyk23]

14. for the substance

look at the pdf here

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/Final%20Report.pdf

It is the Conyers report about the bill