The Horrible Truth About Tort Reform

The Con’s (Conservatives) insist that tort reform…limiting the amount anyone can sue for malpractice…is what is necessary to restrain health care cost. Let’s just sit back and think about frivolous lawsuits. When exactly do lawsuits become necessary? They become necessary when the defendant denies remedy to the plaintiff. All too often this is prompted, not necessarily by the defendant themselves but, from the liability insurer who insists that the plaintiff sue for any kind of relief.

Whether you’re a small business, big business, or a doctor, you pay for liability insurance. But, when an actual liability takes place your insurer goes into hiding, denying the claim, until the plaintiff brings what? A LAW SUIT! Then the game becomes delay. The insurance company knows the liability exists and that they have collected premiums for liability coverage. However, to delay the inevitable…they stall. Because they’re earning interest on the premiums as long as they have the money and you don’t. They make you as the plaintiff SUE them. They have settlement conferences and offer ridiculous settlements, and stall and stall, longer and longer. Maybe they go to “non-binding mediation,” and stall longer. It takes years for final settlement to come to fruition, in most instances. So, who is really responsible for the lawsuits?

Let’s just go to the next step. Let’s say the insurers are successful and finally get the state you live in or the federal government to pass and enforce tort reform that can limit the damages to say $300,000. ($300 grand seems to be the magic number in most states). Twice since I have lived in Texas a patient has gone to the surgery room because a limb has needed to be amputated only to have the wrong limb amputated. It’s supposed to be impossible. But, if your doctor, or nurse or technician happens to be inebriated or on drugs, or cold medicine, it’s very possible. If this tragedy happens to you, or your wife, or your son, or daughter, or father, or mother, or grandson, or granddaughter…is $300,000 enough? I don’t think so.

So, if you want to bring the cost of lawsuits down and address tort reform…let’s address it where it can make a difference, at the insurance company’s executive council. Let’s say to the insurance companies that when a claim is made and the insured has the coverage you pay it immediately instead of stalling for YEARS. And, if you don’t you’ll pay double the claim and the executive making the decision will spend a year or two in jail. Yes…that’s extreme and completely impossible to accomplish. But, if that was the penalty…maybe the cost of frivolous lawsuits might decrease.

When will we as a country figure out that the problem with health care, or even tort reform isn’t government...it’s the insurance industry.