Interesting pro-Bush DU popup ad:

[DaveSZ]

'Send this message to your Members of Congress, and tell them to enact legislation that puts patients first. Please provide your information below and click "Submit".'


"Dear Member of Congress

I am deeply concerned about the status of the United States healthcare system. Costs are escalating rapidly. At the same time, it’s getting more and more difficult for patients like me to get an appointment with a doctor near home.

I support President Bush’s approach to solving this problem—medical liability reform. The fact is, thousands of frivolous medical lawsuits are filed each year by individuals hoping to “hit the lottery” with a big court award. Even though fewer than 10% ever make trial, the costs of defending against these suits are high—and are ultimately passed down to patients. What’s worse, when physicians can no longer afford the rising cost of liability insurance, they simply retire, leave the area, or limit the treatment they offer—leaving patients in many areas without adequate access to medical care.

The great thing about liability reform is that there are no losers—except the trial lawyers. Patients with legitimate suits will be able to recover unlimited economic damages to cover future medical expenses, lost wages, etc. Non-economic damages, like “pain and suffering,” would be capped at $250,000.

This is a reasonable proposal that will have a positive impact on our healthcare system, and I encourage you, as my elected representative in Congress, to do everything in your power to get it passed. Thank you for your time."

[Skinner]

1. Thanks for the heads-up.

I will remove that pop-up.

(We don't pick them. We just get served a bunch of random run-of-network ads by our ad broker.)

[Deja Q]

2. If most of them don't make it to trial,

that means they're not the problem.

Of this 10%, how many are frivolous and how many are not?

If this supporter got hurt big-time, would this person then not mind if he/she only got $250k as damages for an injury that will change his/her life significantly FOREVER?

[theivoryqueen]

3. and ANYONE who supports this kind of legislation should read TX prop 12

and see for themselves the kind of broad mandate legislations are writing for themselves under the guise of malpracice tort reform. It's absurd. The texas lege gave itself the power to decide who gets to go to trial in ANY dispute between two or more parties, including contract disputes! First time in TX. history the judges union got involved and opposed legislation.

[progressivebydesign]

4. "hit the lottery"

Oh YES! Don't we ALL hope that a family member will die at the hands of a negligent health care professional so we can be rich? I mean, that IS the American Dream, right? Every time I go for medical treatment, I hope that today will be my lucky day and they'll accidentally amputate my foot! Then I'lll be RICH!!! RICH!! RICH!!!

Considering any lawyer that argues in court is a TRIAL lawyer.. I think the GOP attacks on trial lawyers is a thinly veiled way to help the insurance companies.. THEY are the villians in all this. Not the victims.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[unblock]

7. in no small part because bush attacked kerry's vietnam service.

you think kerry should have ignored the attacks?

[kentuck]

8. So which part of Bush's record do you wish to talk about ??

Kerry's VietNam service is more questionable to you than George W's non-service? Perhaps even his AWOL service? You want four more years of this shit?

[unblock]

6. let me describe MY "lottery win"

i was in a car accident. passenger in a cab, engine trouble, cabbie decides to stop in the middle lane of i78 around 1130 at night. guess what? rear-ended at highway speeds, surprise, surprise.

i talked to several lawyers, they all said that getting a major award out of cab companies is almost impossible. sure, you can win the trial, but by the time the cab company is forced to pay, they will have no money left. you see, the cab company owners simply pay themselves raises and fail to repair the cars. they privately open a new cab company and hire away the same people. so by the time they're made to pay, all the assets left are some old cabs in disrepair. technically illegal? sure, but just try doing anything about it.

so i got the maximum on their insurance policy, a whopping $50,000. and i got the maximum on the car behind's policy, a whopping $100,000.

so, now, $150,000 sounds like winning the lottery, right?

well, now, first, both policies paid their policy holders first. that's right, the cab company got paid for the their cab getting totalled. the cab company was made whole and didn't lose a penny. second, lawyers take their cut. third, and most people don't know this, medical insurance is subrogated to personal injury lawsuits. what that means is that i had to pay back all the money my medical insurance paid for my treatments. so, in effect, while i got $150,000, i had to pay full price for all the medical bills.

by the time it was all said and done, i wound up with around $40,000 cash. i was working on wall street at the time, and the bonus i got was that much lower than what i had been PROMISED by my boss at the time. of course, i was less valuable to them spending so much time in physical therapy and so on.

my point is, i'm financially worse off because of the accident despite "hitting the lottery". nevermind what i went through. nose surgery, shoulder surgery, years of back pain, 2 slipped neck disks, years of next pain, severe migraines lasting litterally entire seasons, and not being able to chew solid food for over a year. not to mention physical therapy and psychtherapy for post-traumatic stress.

awards always seem so large because the DAMAGES are so large. no one ever reports on how large the actual damages are. if reporters ever gave a fair accounting of how much the victim lost and how much actually winds up in the victims pockets after a "huge" award, the people would be angry at how SMALL awards usually are.

nevermind the fact that the press only covers the rare large award. furthermore, they never cover how much the defendant actually paid. usually, when a jury awards $1,000,000 or whatever, it gets knocked down on appeals. even if not, the parties often settle for far less just to keep it from getting dragged out indefinitely.

having family in the business, i'd say that at least 99% of the time, the victim is NOT made whole.

[Massacure]

9. This pop up was on DU??? Since when did DU have pop-up ads?

lol I love firefox. :P