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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TechGrrl" data-source="post: 586598" data-attributes="member: 4932">They can tell us that, but it simply isn't true.  It's called LYING.Read this article:<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/tort-reform-wont-fix-healthcare-ctd-1.html" target="_blank">Tort Reform?</a>One contributor to the article states:<a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/tort-reform-wont-fix-healthcare-ctd.html" target="_blank">"</a>Tort reform in Texas was supposedly passed to decrease the incentive for people with non-meritous claims to file lawsuits.  The real effect however, was to decrease the incentive and the ability of those with meritous claims to file lawsuits. Our courts already have numerous mechanisms in place to dismiss non-meritous cases. There's motions to dismiss, summary judgments, and the contingency-fee agreement, and judges have the ability to issue directed verdicts. Tort reform isn't about cheaper health care, it's about legislating away financial risk to insurers, which exist solely to assume responsibility for that risk. "Here's another article, near to my heart, since I am stuck with Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning as my senators:<a href="http://www.kentucky.com/591/story/897183.html" target="_blank">Tort Reform Doesn't Cut Health Costs</a>I find this part compelling:"Boston surgeon Atul Gawande visited McAllen and wrote an account for The New Yorker, "The Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care" that's required reading for anyone trying to understand this admittedly baffling topic.One night at dinner with six local doctors he asked why the average cost per Medicare enrollee had soared from $4,891, about the national average in 1992, to almost twice the national average of $15,000 per enrollee in 2006. For perspective, the per capita income in McAllen is only $12,000.Several of the physicians said doctors practiced defensive medicine to protect themselves from the city's especially aggressive lawyers; they ordered extra tests and procedures which drive up costs. But what about the strict limits on malpractice damages. Haven't lawsuits gone down?"Practically to zero," one of the docs said.What's finally revealed is that doctors in McAllen are heavily invested in medical technology and imaging and surgery centers. They order lots of tests and procedures because they directly profit from them. They think of what they do as a business."      There are real things we could do to cut health care costs, but cutting off a mechanism which is often the little guy's only recourse against the big guys is not one of them.</blockquote>

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