2008 Woodie Awards
The president should check his numbers
Igor Volsky
Issue date: 9/23/04 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
As the 2004 presidential campaign moves into its final stages, President Bush has moved from framing Massachusetts senator John Kerry as a weak and indecisive flip-flopper to defining the major issues. Last week, he spoke about health care.
On Sept. 9, President Bush said that "in order to make sure health care is available and affordable, we've got to do something about the frivolous lawsuits that are running good doctors out of practice ...we must protect small business owners and workers from the explosion of frivolous lawsuits that threaten jobs across America."
But scratch below the surface of this rousing rhetoric and you will find that it is not the small business owners Bush seeks to protect, but rather the corporate interests that have funneled millions of dollars into his re-election campaign. In this election cycle, President Bush has received over $4.4 million from insurance companies, and between 2000 and 2002, more than 100 companies have employed 475 different lobbyists to push for tort reform, convincing Congress to pass a measure requiring sanctions against lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits.
Ever since John Kerry selected trialattorney-turned-North Carolina senator John Edwards as his running mate, the Bush campaign has condemned trial lawyers with more vitriol than with which they have damned Osama bin Laden. The former is ridiculed while the latter has been forgotten.
The president's charge that trial lawyers are driving up healthcare costs with frivolous lawsuits just doesn't hold up. Data compiled by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that from 1992 to 2001, the number of civil trials has actually decreased by 47 percent. In 2001, overall damage awards shrank from the 1992 high of $65,000 to just $37,000. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, "these cases included automobile accidents, medical malpractice and product-liability claims."
Meanwhile, a study from the nonpartisan congressional budget office has concluded that "malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of healthcare spending" and even a sharp drop in premiums would reduce the nation's healthcare bill only by less than half of one percent.
But facts have no effect on the president. Let's just hope they still compel the American people.
On Sept. 9, President Bush said that "in order to make sure health care is available and affordable, we've got to do something about the frivolous lawsuits that are running good doctors out of practice ...we must protect small business owners and workers from the explosion of frivolous lawsuits that threaten jobs across America."
But scratch below the surface of this rousing rhetoric and you will find that it is not the small business owners Bush seeks to protect, but rather the corporate interests that have funneled millions of dollars into his re-election campaign. In this election cycle, President Bush has received over $4.4 million from insurance companies, and between 2000 and 2002, more than 100 companies have employed 475 different lobbyists to push for tort reform, convincing Congress to pass a measure requiring sanctions against lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits.
Ever since John Kerry selected trialattorney-turned-North Carolina senator John Edwards as his running mate, the Bush campaign has condemned trial lawyers with more vitriol than with which they have damned Osama bin Laden. The former is ridiculed while the latter has been forgotten.
The president's charge that trial lawyers are driving up healthcare costs with frivolous lawsuits just doesn't hold up. Data compiled by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that from 1992 to 2001, the number of civil trials has actually decreased by 47 percent. In 2001, overall damage awards shrank from the 1992 high of $65,000 to just $37,000. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, "these cases included automobile accidents, medical malpractice and product-liability claims."
Meanwhile, a study from the nonpartisan congressional budget office has concluded that "malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of healthcare spending" and even a sharp drop in premiums would reduce the nation's healthcare bill only by less than half of one percent.
But facts have no effect on the president. Let's just hope they still compel the American people.