Stop Medical Malpractice Reform
This week Congress reconvenes in Washington, D.C. and health care reform will be front and center. This a serious concern that medical malpractice reform will be used as a bargaining chip by the Democrats and the Obama Administration in order to get a Health Care Reform bill passed.
President Obama will be addressing the nation this evening and is expected to set forth what he wants in a health care bill. We must keep medical malpractice reform out of the Healthcare Bill. Why? Because....
· Medical malpractice should not be a bargaining chip. Health care reform is about making sure that every American has access to quality, low-cost health care, not about limiting the legal rights of innocent patients harmed by medical negligence.
· Taking away patient rights does not improve the quality of our health care system or produce cost savings. Forty-eight states have already enacted medical malpractice reform measures. Yet these legal restrictions have done nothing to improve our health care system, reduce costs, or help people harmed by medical negligence.
· Medical malpractice is about real people with real injuries. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 98,000 people die each year in the US from preventable medical errors (the 6th leading cause of death in America).
· Defensive medicine is a myth. Both the GAO and CBO question the prevalence of defensive medicine, and have detailed how tampering with the legal system will save practically no money. Some so-called defensive medicine may be motivated more by profit and less by liability concerns.
One thing is clear - we must ALL be a part of the fight to keep medical malpractice reform out of the health care bill.
