The Tort Reform Lie
Texas has something amusingly called “tort reform.” What this really amounts to is that a known defective product or a drunk doctor can maim you but you can’t collect from them by winning a lawsuit because Republican controlled government protects insurance profits over citizen’s bodies.
Reform, my patootie. It’s buyer beware even though the average citizen has no idea that there are internal memos within say, a tire company, where they know their tires are defective but it’s cheaper to pay the lawsuits for injury and death than it is to fix the defect. Honest to God, this really is happening.
And Lord forbid you can sue a doctor who cut off your arm instead of your appendix because he was drunk during the surgery.
Republicans got this through the Texas Lege by claiming that we were going to save enough money to buy everybody a pink Cadillac if we just wouldn’t let people sue businesses or the insurance companies that insure doctors. They claimed there was something called “lawsuit abuse,” even though there were already legitimate and effective remedies for that.
Lawsuit abuse, may patootie. The goal of tort reform was to protect insurance companies and big business.
And how about those savings the Republicans promises us?
Oh, fiddlesticks, of course that didn’t happen.
A new study found no evidence that health care costs in Texas dipped after a 2003 constitutional amendment limited payouts in medical malpractice lawsuits, despite claims made to voters by some backers of tort reform.
The researchers’ findings come after a report last fall in which the Ralph Nader-founded consumer group Public Citizen said it found Medicare spending in Texas rose much faster than the national average after tort reform.
So, you got screwed twice. You lost your constitutional right to go to court and it ended up costing you more money.
The next time Republicans say they are going to do something nice for you, by “you”, they mean “insurance companies.”
I just hate Republicans. God help me, I do.
Juanita, when trying to find the root of a problem it often pays to look to the simple explanation first. In this case, perhaps tort lawyers tend to vote Democratic. Doesn’t that explain it?
1Those hypocritical, greed hawg republicans injure people then take away their victims’ rights to seek recompense through the courts, where they would be represented by attorneys in private practice. Having no other access to medical treatment or means to replace lost income many of those victims must turn to government agencies and tax-payer supported hospitals. That way the evil, hypocritical, greed hawg republicans increase the need for even more government. If God is as avengeful as He is portrayed by the religious right then there just may be a hell, and those lying, evil, hypocritical, greed hawg republicans should look forward to residing there, keeping company with the Texas politicians and supreme court justices they have employed.
2I’m praying that all drunk doctors operate on Republicans only. That’s the only way that tort reform would be fair.
3It’s never difficult to determine the motives of Republicanites, is it? And yet, the RWers never seem to add 1 + 1.
1. Who benefits? Incompetent docs, bad product mfg, and especially insurance companies.
+1. Who supports this? You get one guess.
Why Dems seem unable to play smashmouth is beyond me.
4Does this also include “reforming” class action lawsuits so that the Phone company can perpetrate tens of millions of petite larcenies every month?
5Reform is a legislative code word. It means some poor folks are gonna get screwed.
6My senior citizen maintenance guy at my townhome complex just had a defective pacemaker removed and replaced. I asked him if he was gonna find himself a pitbull personal injury attorney, and he said his doctor told him he didn’t have a case because he didn’t remove the faulty pacemaker within 2 years of the recall. Of course he was never notified that his pacemaker had been recalled. Poor ole Kenneth just shrugged his shoulders and said he guessed the Good Lord watched over him until he got around to complaining to his doctor about being tired all the time. I hate BS like that. The citizens of Texas have just become accustomed to all this garbage, yet they continue to vote for Republicans. OMG. Dumb as rocks.
7As a person who has worked for “trial lawyers” most of her life, I find this rather pathetic. For the most part, lawyers work very hard and very long hours and are not the greedy millionaires the RePiggery Obstructionists like to paint them as “TRIAL LAWYERS” oh my~the ones who do all the non-recreational screwing are the EVIL INSURANCE COMPANIES~and of course, you never hear them denounced~
8Dan Up North —
More than just voting Democratic, trial lawyers tend to give money to Democrats.
First rule of politics — follow the money.
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