Read This, Read It All / Adam Lynch On Our Courts

Adam Lynch has this very, very good article in the Jackson Free Press:

The Reality of Tort Reform

Tort Reform Doesn't Work (For What They Say It Does)

From the Texas Observer:

Proposition 12, and the far-reaching changes in Texas civil law that it dragged behind it, was built on a foundation of mistruths and sketchy assumptions. The number of doctors in the state was not falling, it was steadily rising, according to Texas Medical Board data. There was little statistical evidence showing that frivolous lawsuits were a significant force driving increases in malpractice premiums.

Perhaps the most insidious sleight of hand employed by Proposition 12 backers was their repeated insistence that medical malpractice insurance rates were somehow responsible for doctor shortages in rural Texas.

“Women in three out of five Texas counties do not have access to obstetricians. Imagine the hardship this creates for many pregnant women in our state,” Gov. Rick Perry told a New York audience in October 2003 at the pro-tort-reform Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. “The problem has not been a lack of compassion among our medical community, but a lack of protection from abusive lawsuits.”

The campaign’s promise, that tort reform would cause doctors to begin returning to the state’s sparsely populated regions, has now been tested for four years. It has not proven to be true.

Big Business and Big Insurance got together to sell us on throwing away our rights to hold them accountable in court. They took a few of their millions and used them to convince us that a jury of our peers couldn't be trusted and that we should fear attorneys more than the multinational corporations that actually harm us. That's what happened and dammit we let it.

The Texas Observer

Barbour's Ad (Disingenuous) "Heart of the Matter"

Consistent with the position taken by the governor on all matters "tort reform," and the truth notwithstanding, please note that Haley Barbour's new 'my tort reform' TV commercial includes an AP release, declaring a medical malpractice 'crisis,'that is dated July 11, 2002. Last time I checked, Barbour came into office in 2004. Democratic Governor Musgrove's special session that addressed medical liability issues was in 2002. Barbour's special session gave immunities to big corporations like tobacco companies and merely tweaked the medical malpractice groundwork laid by Musgrove TWO YEARS previously.


It's kind of weird that "Dr. Kevin Galloway" has a little testimonial on the Governor's website. He is careful not to mention the actual schools where he received his Doctor of Osteopathy degree -- "After earning a degree in Texas, his medical degree in Chicago, interning and residency at Tulane and in Detroit, he returned home to Jackson, Mississippi."

He was licensed in the state of Mississippi in 2001, the same year Barbour claims doctors were leaving the state in droves.

Here is what the testimonial says: "How close was I to leaving? I had signed contracts in my hands that I hadn't mailed yet. I had called the moving trucks to see how long it would take to load equipment and move. I had flown out there to look for houses." Dr. Kevin Galloway, the OB-GYN featured in the latest Barbour for Governor campaign commercial, describes the desperate times before Governor Haley Barbour signed the sweeping 2004 Tort Reform Act. (You mean that 82-day special session didn't accomplish a thing?) Dr. Galloway says the out of control lawsuits, the outrageous malpractice insurance rates, and the atmosphere of legal threats nearly pushed him to abandon his practice in Mississippi. "I had calls from Arizona, Nevada, California, with money on the table. Have you seen the Western mountains? Beautiful. In Mississippi, we were at war. Lawyers turned patients against their doctors. Doctors threatened not to treat lawyers. I began to wonder why I shouldn't move."

So, maybe he was in some kind of time warp or is just naturally behind the times. Most of the med mal issues had been adequately (and severely) addressed in 2002. I'd say I just don't get it, but we all know what the deal is here, doc. If you're as smart a man as your degree claims you to be, you know it too.