HOW ARE THE SPECIAL INTERESTS TREATING US THIS MORNING?

From WNYC News, we have the latest on the fight over medical malpractice caps in Albany. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried is allied with patient safety, but does not sound confident about the result of the coming budget negotiations.

From Missouri, we get another reminder of the failure by tort “reformers” to focus on the source of medical malpractice litigation–negligent, or in this case, drunk physicians. How about a little dose of criminal liability to shape things up in the OR? Now there is some state legislation that makes sense and protects patients.  Leave it to The Show Me State to show NYS legislators how it ought to be done.  And here is a question for Albany’s legislators. How will caps on medical malpractice damages and a no-fault state fund for neurologically-damaged infants (NIIF) stop NYS’s own drunk doctors from severely injuring their unlucky patients?  Just curious.

And it never hurts to be reminded that tort “reform” is a one-sided, anti-consumerist movement, funded by the likes of Big Tobacco, and siezed upon by insurance companies and hospitals that don’t like being held accountable for injuries and/or deaths to patients. So thank you, PA attorney David Fallk, and the Times Tribune , for pointing out that 98,000 patients per year are being killed by negligent medical treatment.

Who are the good folks behind tort “reform”? Not surprisingly, politicians facing indictment, such as NY’s own Sen. Kruger , who shilled for tort “reform” and his good friend, a negligent MD with a history of poor medical care.

And that will have to do it for this morning’s wrap up.