Today’s Health Care Check-Up: — May 4, 2000

Newspapers Continue to Speak Out Against Health Care Lawsuits

In case you missed it, following are excepts from just such an editorial appearing recently in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

"Authorizing lawsuits against HMOs sounds appealing but could have disastrous consequences. Two years ago, we argued on this page that ‘putting resources into costly lawsuits will force insurers to jack up rates for everybody. The only folks who’ll have an easier time affording health insurance in a litigation free-for-all will be the lawyers.’

"We stand by that view. A credible, speedy appeals process, as is being fashioned in compromise legislation, would serve patients better than suits – especially since some employers are looking for a reason to drop group health insurance as a benefit.

"We can’t understand why doctors, who as a group despise lawyers and malpractice litigation, would want to inflict more lawsuits on the health care system."

— Louisville Courier-Journal, "Docs versus the GOP," 4/26/00

The Louisville Courier-Journal joins these other newspapers who have written against allowing lawsuits against HMOs and employers:

  • The Wall Street Journal (10/13/99)
  • The Washington Post (10/11/99)
  • The Los Angeles Times (10/11/99)
  • The Chicago Tribune (10/10/99)
  • The Providence Journal (10/11/99)
  • The Tampa Tribune (10/11/99)
  • The Cleveland Plain Dealer (10/11/99)
  • The Omaha World-Herald (10/10/99)
  • The Arizona Republic (10/10/99)
  • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/10/99)

 

New health care lawsuits will benefit trial lawyers – not patients.

A Patients’ Bill of Rights Shouldn’t Be a Lawyers’ Right to Bill