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Nice thoughts Elric, but pretty wrong across the board. On a previous post I let you know that teachers took offense to something you wrote - and that I had been on the receiving end of such ire before. I, however, am an attorney.
Tort reform is the silliest dumbass Republican notion in history. The only thing that keeps big nasty companies from negligently killing people all the time is the fear of big verdicts. When Ford lost the Pinto case, the smoking gun was an in-house memo comparing the likelihood of the KNOWN problem (i.e. hit in back, go boom) occurring vs. the likely plaintiff's verdict. When Ford did the Profit vs. Liability comparrison, it decided it could afford up to 100 deaths per year and still turn a profit.
That calculus would still prevail if it wasn't for Punitive Damages. "Pain and suffering" = compensate YOU for your injuries. Punitive = hit the wrongdoer SO HARD he won't think about calculating human life vs. money ever again. Thus, the jury in the Ford case said "Well, let's make sure we give them higher numbers than they calculated so we prove them wrong."
This story is repeated ad nauseum: Dalkon Shield, Phen-fen, asbestos products, etc. - the only thing that makes the wrongdoer stop is making the wrongdoer pay for MORE than they think one measley human life is worth.
Similarly, the money was not awarded in the infamous McDonald's case to Compensate the victim - rather to Punish the wrongdoer (who still makes their coffee to damned hot and now simply puts a warning label on it - all just to keep you from getting your free refill worth $.01).
Among those who know what tort reform means, it is only supported by those who have BigCorp lining their pockets.
Now, I'm NOT picking on Doctors. Trust me, as a fellow professional who also has to pay through the nose for malpractice insurance, I sympathize. Plus, like lawyers, doctors have incredibly rigorous standards to meet inside the profession itself and are often called to the carpet by their peers regarding their actions. I feel there are a fair amount of safeguards against medical malpractice - even though some of the laws are finigly.
But, the big companies producing the drugs, medical products, and insurance services are EVIL. EVIL, I say. Price-fixing, bullying competitors, basically bribing doctors, denying coverage to people who pay insurance premiums - all with no real recourse by the public.
Did you know they have colluded (lobbied) to make it illegal for you to go to Canada and buy the exact same drugs that are made and sold in the US - shipped there by the exact same company with the exact same labelling? Why? Because the drug is less safe? HELL NO. Because it's cheaper.
This is quite a long-ish [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] and for that I apologize, but folks simply don't read up on this enough.
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