Borsinger Family Web Log

I recently wrote a letter to Senator  Menendez of New Jersey

Here is the letter – I suspect he is friends with the American Trial Lawyers Union and as such do not expect this to fall on receptive ears – but if enough people speak up – well maby!

Taking cost out of health care and making it more affordable is needed. Getting Government more involved in the process of managing health care is not the answer. Government should look at the cost structure of healthcare and create POLICIES and LAWS that reduce health care costs.

Having been involved in health care -I can confirm that a MAJOR driver to the double digit increases in health care is the LIABILITY and LITTIGATION laws and policy structure. What is needed to drive down health care costs is TORT REFORM. Bad healthcare providers should be provided with guidelines on how to become better – or be excluded from practice – not provide a gravy train for trial lawyers. The HIDDEN COSTS of liability laws and policies that have run amuck far exceed the actual amounts paid out due to litigation. It is a MAJOR DRIVER to increases in healthcare costs – just ask anyone in the business and you find that many healthcare costs and cost increases are rooted in liability concerns and costs.

Countries outside the USA laugh at our liability laws and wonder how businesses can survive under such obstructions. I urge you to focus on the ROOT CAUSES of increases in health care costs and take actions to improve the health care PROCESS and not get Government more involved in the managing of health care.

I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Newark Star Ledger and was dissapointed when it did not publish. Given the content of the letter – I concluded that The Star Ledger probably has lawyers reviewing the letters and for that reason – it would never make to the press. So here it is:

 

Letter to Editor Newark Star Ledger

 

It is baffling to me that with all the recent discussions about control of medical costs there has been no talk of tort reform.  The proposed Government solution of reducing payments to doctors and hospitals seems absurd given that many hospitals are at the brink of bankruptcy and many doctors want to quit the profession. The American Trial Lawyers would have us believe that awards due to medical litigation are not a significant driver to medical costs. But those in the medical field know that hidden costs associates with medical liability are driving up medical costs. These include malpractice insurance costs (By 2003, medical liability costs reached $26 billion – a 2,000 percent increase over 1975 1) as well as medical procedures and tests driven by the threat of suits and not by medical needs. And why does a doctor now have to have 3 office assistants to handle the administration for a doctor? That was not the case 30 years ago when I visited a doctor.

 

The US liability laws are a joke to those overseas. What I would like to see is a study that adds up income for all the trial lawyers in the US – and then implement a good tort reform program that would cut out say 50% of that total. I am certain this would reduce medical costs by tens of billions of dollars. What we need to do with doctors and hospitals that commit malpractice is to get rid of them – not supply a gravy train for trial lawyers. We can also use some of the savings from Trial lawyers to better educate and train medical personnel.

Oh – I just remembered that the American Trial Lawyers are one of the Democratic party’s biggest supporters and most elected officials in Washington are lawyers – I may have answered my own question as to why there is no talk of tort reform!

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Gregory Borsinger