Insurance Companies Are Bragging About Their Influence in Washington

I have blogged about the bill which passed the Republican controlled House of Representatives gutting state medical malpractice laws.  It is a disaster for patients.  It forces each state to reduce what patients are able to recover in state courts despite all the Republican sanctimony about state’s rights.  It sets a very short limitation period during which suits can be brought.  It fulfills every wish the medical industry and its insurers have ever had.

Today a story appeared in the Washington Post about lobbyists for the medical profession and for the big malpractice insurance companies bragging about how they wrote the bill and got the House of Representatives to go along with no hearings and almost no modifications.  The process was quick since they didn’t bother with hearings or public input on such a momentous bill.  It passed with no Democratic support and only a few Republicans refusing to go along.  Needless to say, this is not how major legislation is supposed to be considered and passed.  But, as the lobbyists brag, now that Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, they can do pretty much what they want with their tame legislators.

What is surprising about this story is not so much that lobbyists wrote the bill and that their tame legislators adopted and passed it.  More surprising is that the lobbyists are bragging about how much power they have over the Republicans in Congress who will do what they are told by the big insurance companies.

As the story points out, this bill is just another example of what is wrong with Washington today.  Instead of open hearings for major bills where those who might be affected get to express their views for and against the proposed legislation, now bills are written in secret and presented to a highly partisan Congress as take it or leave it measures.  The process went so fast and without hearings that it was almost done in secret while those who would almost certainly have objected were focusing on the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act.

If the bill makes it through the Senate, where it is subject to a potential filibuster by Democrats, it will almost certainly be signed by President Trump.  It will take away many rights of badly injured persons, in fact it will have the greatest impact on those most seriously injured by medical malpractice.  The doctors and their insurance companies will reap windfall profits and those patients injured by medical malpractice will be left to wonder what happened.

Posted in Doctors, Lawsuits, Malpractice caps, Medical Malpractice, medical malpractice cases, medical malpractice claims, medical malpractice damages caps, medical malpractice lawsuits, plaintiff, tort reform, Valuing Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases, Verdicts |