Universal Healthcare leads to “Tort reform?” August 21, 2009

Despite what anyone says about the provisions contained in the universal health care proposal, I can guarantee that medical providers will need to make some concessions, financially, to even begin to allow the idea to work. Since medical providers will be forced to see more patients for less money, the President’s plan needs to be “sweetened”, especially for doctors. Doctor’s have been lobbying for years for “caps” on medical malpractice awards, claiming that their malpractice insurance premiums are too high because of the jury awards. Research has shown that despite medical malpractice awards on a downward trend in New York State, and Staten Island, malpractice insurance rates have continued to rise.

Doctor’s claim to order more “unnecessary” testing to combat possible malpractice claims. They claim that they need to reduce these “defensive” tests to save money. If these tests are “defensive”, in an attempt to thwart medical malpractice liability, are they really unnecessary? If these so-called defensive tests have the opportunity to uncover some hidden ailment, why are they not “routine”? At what price do we as a consumer place on our lives?  If the doctor’s failure to order these tests is the basis for holding them liable, these tests are not “unnecessary”. We have access to the greatest medical care in the world, why should we not be tested? The argument used to be that the health insurance companies were not authorizing the tests solely because of  “cost” – now that the government is trying to take the place of health insurance companies, the test have become unnecessary.

The President appears ready to strike a deal and place caps on malpractice awards for pain and suffering in exchange for the doctors backing of the helath care proposal.  The President and the Doctor’s will get what they want but the consumer will suffer if they are ever the victim of medical malpractice. Be careful of what rights you allow the government to take away. Your life may depend on it.

Frank Dito is a New York Personal Injury attorney specializing in New York real estate law , New York business law, and New York franchise law. You can visit his Law Firm Decker, Decker, Dito and Internicola website by clicking here, download his FREE New York Car Insurance book, or call him at 718-979-4300 or 1-800-310-5520 for a free case analysis.

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