Edwards under attack --- LBN -- Maybe we can help....

[FormerOstrich]

I'm off work on Monday so I think I'll do some research on this over the rest of my weekend. Is anyone familiar with this issue? Is it worth sinking our teeth into? Why isn't Edwards using this? He'd know wouldn't he?

President Bush, in his acceptance speech to the Republican convention, said a top priority for his second term would be reducing the regulatory burden on the nation’s physicians: "To make health care more affordable and accessible, we must pass medical liability reform now," Bush said, adding, "n all we do to improve health care in America, we will make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C."

Bush’s remarks were meant to present a contrast with the Democratic ticket, particularly vice-presidential nominee John Edwards, a onetime trial lawyer who made his fortune winning medical malpractice cases. But before the president casts stones at his opponents, he should look at the sins his own administration has committed against physicians. Bush’s appointees to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have spent the past three years prosecuting physicians in record numbers, not for malpractice, but for the cardinal economic sin of modern statism—antitrust.

....more

http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1616











http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1616

[clydefrand]

1. If he truly means what he says, then why is he opposed to

women's right to choose?

"Bush said, adding, "n all we do to improve health care in America, we will make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C."


Health decisions made by doctors include: a woman's right to choose to have an abortion or not. How does he reconcile the above position with his opposition to Roe v. Wade?

Is this a FLIP-FLOP??

[CoffeeAnnan]

2. I read somewhere that the issue of runaway jury verdicts resulting

in increased insurance premiums is a bogeyman that has been concocted by the health insurance industry to maintain its current profitability which is enormous. There are some data that show that the total dollar amounts are very small in relation to the premiums generated in the industry.A little digging along this line could be beneficial to our man.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Somebody should ask Joe Lieberman about this -- he knows

the insurance industry pretty well.

(Was that bad?)

[chemteacher]

4. The Daily Mislead has a link to CBO report.

I don't have the exact link but it is easy to find.

The Congressional Budget Office (nonpartisan) has shown that high malpractice premiums are basically a wash. The insurance companies cover their own ass for doctors who are guilty by jacking up the premiums. It is a complete red herring for Repubs when talking about health care costs.

Repubs say,"Hey..look over here at the high malpractice premiums and don't pay attention to us blowing the insurance and pharmaceutical companies."

The CBO concluded that in states that already have caps on lawsuits, the impact to health care costs for average folks is about one-half of one percent. John Edwards brought that up on Tuesday night in the debate, but it got missed by most of the media.

[Catt03]

5. Repeat of the money grabbing of hte '70's and again in the 80's

We did this same triange then...Docotors/hospitals- insurance compaines-malpractice insurance

A Consumer Reports article entitled “The Manufactured Crisis – Liability insurance companies have created a crisis and dumped it on you” noted, “ more objective analysis suggests the “crisis” is of the insurance companies own making.”<48> It quoted a Washington State Task Force as concluding that the premium escalations were the result “mostly of poor management practices by the companies.”<49>

http://www.gtla.org/public/justice-preservation/legpacket/tab8.html

I am not a great fan of the 500 dollar an hour attorney but this is really about insurance companies and the economy.

Oh...and power