It's Torte Reform, Stupid

Instead of taking over and destroying the greatest health care system on the planet, let's talk tort reform. That's right folks, step right up and hear all about it - tort reform is the single biggest area for health care reform that the Federal and State Governments could enact and guess what? It doesn't cost anything! Shocking I know, but all the LAWYERS in government need to change the way our judicial system processes medical related lawsuits.

The cost of malpractice insurance is one of the largest costs a doctor's office has to bear - more than rent and salaries. The expensive tests they order are part of the defensive medicine practice, would cease. The class action lawsuits advertised during daytime TV - gone for the most part. The lawyers are getting rich, not the doctors.

Fix two things - Loser pays, where if you sue someone and loose, you pay for their legal costs. Takes care of stupid and frivolous lawsuits. Cap punitive damages - if the doctor is guilty of malpractice the patient should be compensated maximum for their lifetime of lost income and punitive damages capped at $250K. We should not be in the practice of making people rich from these lawsuits.

The have capped the punitive damages in Texas and it has been wildly successful. Kansas has also adopted similar measures and have seen their costs go down and doctors come back to the state.

Last thing - get the states and the governments out of insurance writing. For example, in Virginia it is a state mandatory provision for all health insurance to cover cranial prosthetic - you know what that is? A wig, a freaking wig. So Joe 22 year old healthy guy goes in to buy health insurance and he HAS to have wig coverage - that drives the cost up for Joe, even though he will never use it.

I have a radical idea? What if I want to start a charity to help people that have lost their hair buy wigs? Wouldn't that be better? But of course, after I pay my 60% taxes, I can't give to the charity anyway - cause hey, "I'm just trying to spread the wealth around".