Guest Column: Better Care, Thanks to Tort Reform
Thanks to the passage of lawsuit reforms, medical care is now more readily available in many Texas communities. For many patients, this change has been life-altering; for some, life-saving.
George Rodriguez walks today thanks to tort reform. Newly established Corpus Christi neurosurgeon Matthew Alexander urgently operated on Rodriguez’s spinal abscess, relieving the pressure on his spinal cord and sparing him life in a wheelchair. Without the state’s lawsuit reforms, Alexander wouldn’t have relocated to Texas and Rodriguez would have been deprived access to emergency neurosurgery in Corpus Christi.
Cancer survivor Ruby Collins credits newly minted Brownwood urologist ...
Comments (9)
Rick Scott McGuckin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
blech.
Rick Scott McGuckin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
trickle-down economics doesn't work, neither does trickle-down medicine.
Obed Manuel via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It's crappy doctors escaping potential lawsuits in other states.
Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Tort reform is total BS. See "Hot Coffee" a great documentary about what is really going on. Follow the money.
annie m
We don't need tort reform. Tort reform binds the hands of good attorneys and endangers the public by enabling incompetent or sloppy doctors. We do direly need lawyer reform, and not from the State Bar. Laws and standards that protect the public are not the problem. Unethical and bad lawyers are the problem.
John Burton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
1. Patients were promised lower health insurance rates. FAIL.
2. Doctors were promised lower liability rates. FAIL
3. "George Rodriguez walks today thanks to tort reform." Your use of emotion as argument is flawed, not to mention grandiose. You imply no neurosurgeon practiced in Corpus Christi before Tort Reform. Can you back that up?
4. What is the quality of these new doctors? One of them was a drug addict who preformed spinal surgery under the influence. The patient no longer walks, the Doctor still practices (in a different city, but still in Texas).
John Burton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"Howard Marcus, an internist at Austin Regional Clinic, is the chairman of Texas Alliance For Patient Access, a statewide coalition of health care providers that supported the passage of the state’s 2003 medical liability reforms."
Why don't you disclose the source of TAPA funding on your website?
gameday liberal
The tort reform passed in the Texas Legislature and signed by a Republican governor was not about reform. It was all about placing a campaign contribution limit on trial lawyers by Repubicans for Republican candidates running in Texas. Most trial lawyer campaign contributions went to Democratic office-holders or the Democratic Party opposition. Tort reform is Republican Party campaign finance law enacted. This was the beginning of voter suppression in Texas.
David W. Hodges via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How can you write this with a straight face, Doctor? You know that per capita growth for doctors is DOWN after tort reform. You KNOW that!!! I'm happy that you didn't have to settle for a Porsche and instead bought a Lambo with your malpractice insurance savings. I'm sure all the widows I have turned away with valid medmal claims are happy for you too.