It’s review time! Debate on the “Health Care Bill” has gone on for over a year, and I thought we should review the Republican understanding of what’s in the bill. Even though I know this will piss off my Conservative readers, I think it’s necessary, because Republicans have deciphered much of what was in the bill in order to “keep us safe”.

Obama and Republicans discuss Tort Reform at the Health Insurance Reform Summit

The answer to “why is there health care?” may seem obvious, but one reason conservatives are nonsensical on health care is that their answer to that question is, um, different.

Republican ideas always bump up against pesky reality.

Over the past several years, state legislatures have been stampeded into enacting “tort reform” laws to remedy a phony tort “crisis.” Now some state supreme courts are considering whether such laws are constitutional.

The very best version of the Public Option on the table today exists in the House reform bill, and with an incredibly generous reading of CBO data saves $2.5 Billion per year to the government, and no apparent impact on savings to overall healthcare expenditures (public AND private). Medical malpractice runs at a cost of somewhere around $50 Billion per year to the system as a whole.

It is imperative that lawmakers understand that tort law changes will not fix America’s broken health care system, and only hurts families like the Foughts from getting justice. Health care reform must improve patient safety, not limit people’s legal rights. With 98,000 unnecessary deaths every year, there’s just too much at stake.

American Association for Justice President President Anthony Tarricone writes that tort reform is a bad bargain that will not fix health care.