Bush's Bogus Blather on Medical Malpractice
January 5, 2005 08:59

Jan. 5, 2005

Today, President Bush is visiting Madison County, Illinois, which is next to St. Clair County, Illinois, to trumpet his proposal for placing a draconian cap on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Bush will label both counties "judicial hellholes." Public Citizen and an Illinois advocacy group have issued an analysis of Bush's frivolous claims that may be of use to you and your colleagues.

It is available at:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Final%20VAFU-PC%20Factsheet%201-5-04.pdf

Another fact sheet refuting Bush's frivolous claims about medical malpractice, health care costs and the economy is available here:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Final%20VAFU-PC%20Factsheet%201-5-04.pdf

A second Lewis and Clark County resident has filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth Inc., and two other drug companies, as well as Wyeth's subsidiaries, alleging the company's hormone replacement products caused her to develop breast cancer. In... (Read Article)

The medical malpractice bill backed by President Bush
would prevent consumers from seeking punitive damages
from the makers of Vioxx and Celebrex, two popular
pain medications recently linked to increased risks
of heart attacks and strokes, according to legal
experts on both sides of the issue. While Bush often
touts the medical malpractice proposals as a prudent
way to stop frivolous lawsuits against doctors, the
bill's less-discussed liability protections for
pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co., the
manufacturer of Vioxx, is generating controversy.
The drug company provision has been in the Republican
House bill, which Bush supports, for months, but
after the Vioxx and Celebrex reports, the bill's
opponents are making the provision a key argument
against the Bush plan. Supporters privately say the
legislation may have to be changed to win approval.
"I am sure it gives opponents a pretty good bludgeon,"
said former representative James C. Greenwood
(R-Pennsylvania), who sponsored the bill, which
passed the House but not the Senate. In a statement
to try to preempt Bush's speech on medical
malpractice lawsuits, Todd A. Smith, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, said,
"President Bush unashamedly advocates legislation
that would protect insurance industry profits and
prohibit any punishment for the makers of dangerous
drugs like Vioxx."

Jim VandeHei, The Washington Post, 01/05/2005
For complete story, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48417-2005Jan4?language=printer

Experts retained by the Bush administration said that
more effective disciplining of incompetent doctors
could significantly alleviate the problem of medical
malpractice litigation. As President Bush prepared to
head to Illinois to campaign for limits on
malpractice lawsuits, the experts said that states
should first identify those doctors most likely to
make mistakes that injure patients and lead to
lawsuits. The administration recently commissioned a
study by the University of Iowa and the Urban
Institute to help state boards of medical examiners
in disciplining doctors. "There's a need to protect
the public from substandard performance by physicians,"
said Josephine Gittler, a law professor at Iowa who
supervised part of the study. "If you had more
aggressive policing of incompetent physicians and
more effective disciplining of doctors who engage in
substandard practice, that could decrease the type
of negligence that leads to malpractice suits."
Randall R. Bovbjerg, a researcher at the Urban
Institute, said, "If you take the worst performers
out of practice, that will have an impact" on
malpractice litigation. "Most doctors have few or no
claims filed against them," he added. "But within
any specialty, a few doctors have a high proportion
of the claims." Massachusetts has adopted an approach
that experts say may provide a model for other states.
Without waiting for a complaint to be filed, the
Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine
conducts a clinical review of any doctor who has
made three or more malpractice payments to patients
as a result of jury verdicts or settlements. Nancy
Achin Audesse, executive director of the board, said "one-fourth of 1 percent of all the doctors - 98 of
the 37,369 doctors - accounted for more than 13
percent of all the malpractice payments, $134
million of the $1 billion in total payments."

Robert Pear, The New York Times, 01/05/2005
For complete story, search http://query.nytimes.com/search/advanced?srchst=nyt
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INSURERS IN THE DISCUSSION

"Bush puts the onus on judges and juries, but that
addresses only a minor part of the problem. The
property/casualty insurance industry is projected to
earn profits of $36 billion in 2004 - an all-time
record - and medical malpractice insurance companies
in both Illinois and Missouri have been profitable
during the past two years. In 2003, for example, the
dominant Illinois malpractice insurer, known as ISMIE,
took in more than twice as much in premiums as it
paid out in claims. The five physician malpractice
insurers writing most of the business in Missouri
took in 400 percent of what they paid out. And
Missouri's major hospital malpractice insurer took
in 600 percent of what it paid out. Figures for 2004,
which are not yet available, should be even higher....
[The Bush administration is] seeking legislation
that would increase insurer profits by limiting the
amount insurers might have to pay if an insured
doctor or hospital negligently injures or kills a
patient. But here's the twist: Such legislation
never has brought down insurance rates. After limits
on insurance company payouts were enacted in Ohio,
Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Nevada during the past
two years, for example, rates went up, not down."

Jay Angoff, Insurance Commissioner for Missouri,
1993-1998. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 01/05/2005
For complete story, search

President Bush will use Downstate Madison County to
relaunch his campaign against "lawsuit abuse" he says
drives doctors from this Mississippi River area and
other communities around the country. But lawyers and
court watchers say doctors win most cases in Madison
County. Of the 364 medical malpractice suits filed
there since 1996, only eight resulted in verdicts
against doctors or hospitals for a total of $3
million, or about $380,000 each. "I don't think the
stats on verdicts bear out all the rhetoric being
given out by politicians and the media," said Judy
Riley, president of the Verdict Reporter of St.
Louis, which records Madison County verdicts. Of the
364 lawsuits filed against Madison County doctors and
hospitals in the last eight years, only eight
resulted in verdicts against them.


* Medical malpractice cases filed since 1996: 364

* Cases dismissed or settled out of court: 196

* Cases that went to trial: 21

* Cases won by doctors/hospitals: 13

* Cases won by patients: 8

* Average jury award: $380,000

* Largest award: $1.7 million

Abdon M. Pallasch, The Chicago Sun Times, 01/05/2005
For complete story, see http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bush05.html