Mr. Go Fuck Yourself is looking for another wedge issue and yesterday it was medical malpractice. Cheney wants to limit malpractice settlements to $250,000, claiming that the problem with Americas health care system is all the fault of greedy bastards who sue those poor innocent doctors. Are there abuses? Sure. Go after the abusers of the system, not the victims. To push a one-size-fits-all regardless of what happened is ridiculous. How about some criticism of GOP donors from the pharmaceutical industry who are bilking the government of millions? I guess it's OK to take a lot of money if you're a contributor. Anyway, the numbers just aren't there to support Cheney's theory.
"This problem doesn't start in the waiting room," Cheney said in remarks released by the campaign. "It doesn't start in the operating room. The problem starts in the courtroom."
An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office said the malpractice bill would benefit physicians and the government but would reduce private health insurance premiums a scant 0.4 percent.
"The Bush administration largely gets it backwards," said Columbia University law professor and physician William M. Sage. "They say health care is expensive because of lawsuits. I say lawsuits are expensive because of our health care system."
"The solution that organized medicine and the White House are supporting is a fix for the doctors to some degree," said Martin J. Hatlie, president of the Chicago-based Partnership for Patient Safety, which advises hospitals on safety improvements. "It helps keep their premiums down. It does nothing to advance the quality of care, nothing to advance the safety of care, nothing to more fairly compensate claimants or address the other really significant problems in the current medical-legal system."
