September 25, 2007

The man who channeled the thoughts of a deceased child for the benefit of a jury in a civil lawsuit now is running for President. One would think that he might channel the thoughts of Ronald Reagan, or JFK, or Give-'Em-Hell Harry Truman. Or Scoop Jackson, or someone.

And one would be wrong. Instead, the good Senator channeled himself, and his campaign consultants, at a forum organized by our dear friends at Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals.

First on the agenda was the issue of limiting "medical malpractice lawsuits without merit." Edwards noted helpfully that "the bulk of the problem is created when cases are filed... that should never be filed," and that "a lot of that responsibility goes to the lawyers."

Wow. Is the good Senator about to slam his buddies in the plaintiff's bar? Well... no. Instead, sayeth John Kerry's running mate, attorneys who seek to file malpractice lawsuits should have to obtain certification by two experts to prove that their cases have merit. And precisely what does "merit" mean, anyway? Well, no one knows. And how difficult would it be to find a couple of hired guns with M.D. after their names to certify "merit"? Everyone knows the answer to that: It would be trivial, as the recent scandals with asbestosis and silicosis lawsuits demonstrate plainly. Would the experts be under oath? Would the cases have to be tried, or at least go through discovery anyway, merely to establish "merit"? No one at the "forum" seems to have asked. What is clear is that this "reform" is as phony as they come, so transparently so that one wonders why Edwards even bothers.

And then there is AIDS. Edwards proposes, among other things, that WHO standards rather than those of the FDA be used to allow new AIDS drugs to reach the market earlier than otherwise would be the case. Why should only AIDS patients be given this benefit? On that as well the forum was silent.

And on overall health care reform, the good Senator solemnly informed all that it is essential to make clear "the rightness of the substance of what you want to do," adding "And that's the way we drive through the entrenched interests of insurance companies and drug companies and lobbyists..." And "rightness" waits for no man: Edwards said that as president he would submit a health care proposal to Congress on his first or second day in office. Well, thank the Lord for that; for a minute there, I thought that the crisis might get out of hand.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at September 25, 2007 04:14 PM

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