Curbing the High Cost of Health Insurance!

The other day I was sitting at the auto repair shop waiting for my brakes to be fixed. There was a copy of the "Texas Monthly" among the magazines the repair shop had for people to read while waiting for their cars. There was an article called, "Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!" I read the article, which changed my mind, somewhat, on limiting non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. The article made a good argument that Texas' current limit on non-economic damages of $250,000 for an individual and $750,000 for any three or more people is unfair. The article pointed out that people have been damaged to the point of loosing their lives due to medical malpractice and could only collect $250,000 if they cannot prove economic value to their lives.

I have ever felt that having malpractice insurance is like a criminal having insurance against prison time for robbing a bank. The prefix "MAL" means bad, even bad to the point of being "EVIL". Someone who does "EVIL" should not be immune from the costs of the "EVIL" that they do by having mal (EVIL) practice insurance. I believe that state law should require doctors, medical facilities, and, lawyers to have malpractice insurance. Lawyers are not required to have malpractice insurance, at least not in Texas. However, the insurance should only be required to pay those damages over the net worth of the policy holder. In other words, if a doctor, medical facility or lawyer faces the proposition of loosing everything they own and everything that they earn, they would be much more careful in practice, killing two birds with one stone.

Another part of the answer to curbing the high cost of health insurance is to craft a state law that says that, if a lawyer files a malpractice suit and looses, that the lawyer is liable for the legal costs that the defendant incurs. Also, that defendant should have the right to bring a malpractice suit against the lawyer who filed the loosing suit, for "Pain and Suffering." Remember, the issue is presented to a jury and it would level the playing field. There are, at any given time, thousands of lawsuits being prosecuted against doctors and medical facilities for malpractice, but very few against lawyers.

It is virtually impossible to sue a lawyer for malpractice because they own the courts.
The courts are not about truth and justice, the courts are about enriching members of the bar associations, the most powerful lobbying organization in the nation. Most people are unaware of this because they have never litigated in court. Lawyers have, for far too long, controlled the courts and their rules of procedure. The time has come to alleviate that wrong. Control of the courts should be done by legislation, not by the bar associations. Doctors and medical facilities are scared to death of juries. Let's put that fear into lawyers too. Probably the greatest injustice that the courts are perpetrating against us is that the judge is a lawyer and has a greater allegiance to the bar associations than to the contestants in a case. The time has come to level the field.