President Obama and Med-Mal Reform, MoJo Skepticism

Friday, June 19, 2009

From Mother Jones, a reasonable assessment of President Obama’s speech Monday to the American Medical Association and his seriousness in agreeing (vaguely) with legal reform to help curb health care costs, “Doctors Boo Obama“:

Hillary Clinton tried this same anti-lawsuit gambit back in the early 1990s and we all know how well that worked out.  Obama’s situation is probably even more hopeless because he’s making promises that the AMA must know he can’t keep. Here’s why: As a constitutional law professor, Obama knows well that most of the legal measures doctors support to reduce “defensive medicine,” including the much vaunted “health court” proposals, are fundamentally unconstitutional. They tend to violate people’s Seventh Amendment rights to a jury trial, among other things. Moreover, with Democrats running the House and Senate, restrictions on medical malpractice lawsuits are most likely dead on arrival.

It’s not just trial lawyer money that will doom the effort. Trial lawyers don’t have nearly as much money as doctors and insurance companies, for one thing. But also, there are some powerful lawyers in Congress who will put up a big fight on this one on principle. Among them: Republican senator and onetime trial lawyer Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, who voted against malpractice reform bills in 2003 and 2004. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), another former trial lawyer, has also been a reliable opponent of lawsuit restrictions. Obama’s own vice president might pose the biggest obstacle to any attempt to limit malpractice suits. Joe Biden was a trial lawyer himself (as is his brother and son, Beau), and the biggest donors during his political career have been fellow plaintiff attorneys. Biden has never once supported a tort reform bill in Congress; it seems unlikely he would start supporting such proposals now.

Don’t underestimate trial lawyer influence; they’re a core constituency.


Posted @ 4:07 pm | Category: Briefly Legal, Health Care | Author: Carter Wood | Tags: , , , | No Comments

From the President’s Health Care Speech to the AMA

Monday, June 15, 2009

President Obama: “Health care is the single most important thing we can do for America’s long-term fiscal health. That’s a fact. That’s a fact.”

The President’s speech is not online yet at the White House website. We’ll post a link when it becomes available. (UPDATE: Here it is. The White House blog declares it “a landmark, sweeping speech,” which is a bit presumptious.)

Right now at the top of the speech’s section is “COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY DR. JILL BIDEN TO GRADUATES, FAMILY MEMBERS, AND FACULTY OF KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE.”

Two thoughts: Excellent — the elevation of the importance of community colleges as a consistent theme of the White House. Very much appreciated.

And…interesting. The White House clearly regards Jill Biden as core member of its message team. Don’t ever recall a Lynn Cheney speech being on the Bush Whitehouse.gov speech site.

UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): The American Association for Justice, the trial lawyers lobby, releases a response to the President’s speech, statement on medical malpractice reform. They’re for something else.


Posted @ 1:30 pm | Category: Education and Training, Health Care | Author: Carter Wood | Tags: , , | No Comments

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