Health Care Reform, Frivolous Lawsuits, and Republicans, Oh My!

I always like it when frivolous lawsuits are in the news.  This time they are at the center of the President Obama’s proposed health care plan.

The gist of it is that the current debate surrounding the new health care plan could be resolved if the Republicans get their way on medical malpractice lawsuit reform.  For those of you who might not know, the Republican Party has long held the view that frivolous lawsuits are a plague on modern American society.  In the case of medical malpractice, they essentially believe changing the ease in which claims can be brought against medical professionals and/or placing caps on what plaintiffs can receive in pain and suffering awards will lower medical malpractice insurance.  The logic here is that reducing the liability and financial risk of practicing medicine reduces malpractice insurance premiums which will then reduce the cost of health care for all us Americans.

In practice, however, it’s not that simple.

Now to all you out there on the internet who are still reading my various rantings, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of frivolous lawsuits in that I think they are, well, frivolous.  They clog up our judicial system with claims better suited for rulings from a clown court.  They often don’t need to be heard at all and are aimed only to make money.  You’ll all probably also notice by now that my politics fall in the center and I’m more an advocate for bi-partisanship, despite the fact that I generally loathe the frivolous lawsuit.  So it pains me to say that at the same time, I do realize the ease in which lawsuits can be filed can also serve as a great potential deterrence to the more corrupt in our society.  Most people looking to rip people off in an intricate business scheme would probably think twice, or at the very least further complicate their plan to rip people off, if they know that they could easily be held liable for their actions.

So what am I saying, you ask?  Well, basically that in this case there needs to be a better balancing of objectives.  While it may seem like a good compromise by making lawsuits hard to file against medical professionals, that also means it will be harder for all people to file lawsuits against medical professionals, regardless of the legitimacy of their claim.  Furthermore, putting a cap on pain and suffering award will most likely reduce medical malpractice insurance for doctors, which is great for doctors.  However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those savings will be passed on to patients.  If you were suddenly freed from your car insurance premiums, would you give all that new disposable income to Oliver Twist and the rest of orphanage?  I would, but not everyone is a wonderful as I am.

The best course of action, I think, in this case would be a compromise from the Republicans.  As much as medical malpractice lawsuits need to be reformed, the sheer number of health needs that will be served by the passage of President Obama’s new health care plan greatly outweighs the follies of an overly litigious public.  The privatization of health care in some ways could be a factor in increasing frivolous lawsuits, as well.  People who can’t get the money for their surgery from their insurance company could theoretically try and go after their medical providers instead.  It may sound like a stretch to some, but hey, crazier things have happened.

Once again, I’ll get off my soapbox…