Wrong Remedy, Doc

Certainly the "medical liability system needs fixing," as Donald J. Palmisano, M.D., president-elect of the American Medical Association, points out in his letter [ Nov. 20], but H.R. 4600 is not the answer.

In a study released last month by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, expensive and often unproven new medical technology, along with hospital mergers, are listed as among the leading factors driving the double digit health care cost increases. Also, let us not forget the loss in investment income that insurance companies are experiencing, like the rest of America, in a crippled economy.

Instead, elected officials, beholden to special interest groups, are sizing the moment and singing again the malpractice litigation refrain as the reason for rising health care costs. Nothing in the proposed legislation would decrease premium costs, increase the availability of medical malpractice insurance or act as a check on bad medicine. Instead, it federalized issues that typically have been left for the states, as these now self-styled health care reformers do an about-face on this issue. When [Republicans] were in the legislative minority on the Hill, they instead wanted many of the same issues to be determined state by state. More important, however, the legislation places severe limitations on injured patients’ medical malpractice remedies and victimizes in court those with the most debilitating injuries.

The National Academy of Sciences released a report Nov. 19 that concluded that " The American health care system is confronting a crisis." The Academy urges President Bush to consider alternatives to the existing market-based health-care system through pilot projects in a few states.

Clearly, this matter is in need of study, but is I overly simplistic and superficial to restrict the rights of people who have been victims of malpractice as quick fix to the purported "crisis." Aggressive efforts by partisan leaders is not the long term solution.