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Edited on Wed Jul-07-04 10:26 AM by Skinner
OP-ED COLUMNIST Malpractice Myths By BOB HERBERT
Published: June 21, 2004 he power brokers obsessed with tort reform really have the jargon down. They travel the country with overheated stories about runaway juries and jackpot justice. The way they tell it, sinister lawyers and opportunistic plaintiffs are on the hunt, preying on virtuous corporations, hospitals and doctors in search of that big payout from the lawsuit lottery.
President Bush has been complaining about "junk and frivolous" lawsuits for years. So it's interesting to hear the following from the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer advocacy group:
"It may be hard to understand why `tort reform' is even on the national agenda at a time when insurance industry profits are booming, tort filings are declining, only 2 percent of injured people sue for compensation, punitive damages are rarely awarded, liability insurance costs for businesses are minuscule, medical malpractice insurance and claims are both less than 1 percent of all health care costs in America, and premium-gouging underwriting practices of the insurance industry have been widely exposed."
In looking at medical malpractice cases, I've been amazed by the cold-blooded attitude so many people have taken toward patients who have been seriously, and sometimes grotesquely, harmed. Referring to a Wisconsin woman who had both of her breasts removed after a laboratory mix-up mistakenly indicated she had cancer, a doctor from South Carolina told a Congressional subcommittee:
EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT
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