Bill Clinton declared during the 1992 presidential race, “Health care is a right, not a privilege.” The statement was the cornerstone of his case for a national health care system, which was later pilloried by Congress and various interest groups. Irony lies in the fact that Americans do consider health care a “right.” Think about it. If you were injured in a car accident, you would expect to be rushed to a hospital and receive treatment before figuring out how you were going to pay for it. In other words, heal first, bill later. That is pretty much the way things work. By law, at least one hospital must cover a region in every part of this country. By law, that hospital must treat anyone who comes through the door in need of medical care.
So under what circumstances could you not receive health care? If the hospital you go to does not have a doctor that does the particular procedure you need, well, you’re just out of luck. There is no law that requires a hospital to have more than a few family and emergency room physicians on call to cover emergencies.
Mississippi is on the verge of a health care crisis. Because of our mostly rural population, we already have a problem making sure each of our citizens has access to basic medical care. This problem is compounded because physicians are leaving our state at an alarming rate because the cost of practicing medicine has climbed way too high.
The reason the cost of practicing has grown so high is because malpractice insurance rates have tripled in the past few years. Don’t believe the argument that insurance companies have raised the rates so high because of the bad economy. If that is true, why are these doctors just moving their practices over to Alabama or Georgia?
No, this is just a Mississippi phenomenon. So why are the insurance companies singling out our state? Because the fastest-growing industry in the state over the past few years has not been casino gambling, but ambulance chasing. The number of malpractice cases has shot up because of a lethal combination of poorly educated jurors, slick attorneys and no tort reform.
There probably isn’t much that can be done with the first two problems mentioned, at least nothing that could be accomplished in the current legislative session. But we can do something about tort reform.
Tort reform makes the loser of the case pay at least a percentage of the court costs and legal fees. The purpose is to discourage people from filing frivolous lawsuits. Every other industrialized nation in the world has some type of tort reform. Mississippi has no tort reform laws, and we’re not going to have any for at least another year. The bill was defeated by tremendous opposition from various trial lawyer groups whose members are the only ones who benefit from our current system of filing lawsuits to “fish for a settlement.”
Frivolous lawsuits are something we all pay for. It’s a hidden tax on our medical bills because the higher insurance premiums are passed on to consumers.
Tort reform was one of the few issues the Legislature dealt with during the current session that has a real impact on every Mississippian. Since it didn’t pass this session … well, I just hope that if I get sick, I’m in an urban area of our state. Otherwise, a doctor might be hard to find.