Rhetoric Meets Reality

Charles Krauthammer, in his article Rhetoric Meets Reality writes this about the high cost of malpractice insurance for doctors.

"But the greatest waste is the hidden cost of defensive medicine: tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from lawsuit. Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law.

Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings. Yet you cannot find it in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in the full hour of his health care news conference. Why? No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers."

Anyone who goes to a doctor regularly, or has had a visit to the hospital or emergency room can see the prolific waste in resources caused by the"cover your a--" tests the doctors must do to protect themselves from lawsuits. This cost, plus the resultant higher than necessary insurance premiums directly inflate the doctor and hospital bills. The only people that benefit are the trial lawyers and Charles answered the question as to why tort reform is not in the proposed bill.

Medicare is sinking under the weight of these costs and any medical care legislation is doomed without comprehensive tort reform.