Subject: [Homestead] Lie Junker and his lies about lawsuits, jury verdicts
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 12:44:43 -0500
BUSH'S JUNK CLAIM ABOUT JUNK LAWSUITS
1/18/2005
It would be funny watching George W running around the country on his
little stick horse, pretending to be a "reformer" – if it was not so
sad, so wrong.
His latest war whoop is that, by gollies, he wants to reform the
so-called tort laws so HMOs, hospitals, doctors, and drug companies
can't be driven out of business by us patients who sue them when their
practices harm us. Bush's handlers sent him to Collinsville, Illinois,
just outside of St. Louis, where he held a photo-op and labeled both St.
Clair and Madison counties as "judicial hell holes." He noted that 720
malpractice and wrongful death suits have been filed there against area
practitioners in the past seven years, with jury awards causing enormous
economic damage to them and curtailing health care in the area.
The issue of tort law has long been the prerogative of state
governments, but George says it now must be federalized because, he says
that "junk lawsuits" are proliferating all over. Juries, he wailed, are
handing out such massive judgments to patients who sue that entire
hospitals, groups of doctors, and other medical businesses are shutting
down.
Problem is, it just ain't so. The watchdog group, Public Citizen, found
that of the 720 cases that George cited, only 14 resulted in jury
verdicts. And only seven of those verdicts sided with the patients.
Excuse me, but seven verdicts in seven years is hardly a federal crisis.
Moreover, Bush's proposed remedy is to cap pain-and-suffering damages at
$250,000 per case. Yet, in the two counties cited by George as judicial
hell holes, only one case – one! – resulted in a jury award that
exceeded this cap. Again, this is hardly a runaway system requiring
federal intervention.
To put some truth on Bush's lies about "junk" lawsuits – and to help
defend your legal right to hold bad medical practitioners accountable
for their damages – call Public Citizen: 202-588-7741.
[Homestead] Lie Junker and his lies about lawsuits, jury verdicts,
tvoivozhd, 01/28/2005