As usual, Cheney is lying again. This from the progress report
7/20/04:

HEALTH CARE
Dick Cheney, Insurance Salesman

Speaking at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo yesterday, Vice
President Cheney called for a cap on medical malpractice awards. But
instead of shilling for the insurance industry, Cheney's time would
have been better spent in Ohio reviewing this fact sheet on
malpractice from the Ohio Universal Health Care Network. As it
documents, the "solution" proposed by the White House is really
designed to take the heat off the insurance industry that is fueling
the problem, and bankrolling the Bush campaign. As other studies
document, malpractice caps do little – if anything – to reduce
doctors' and patients' insurance rates. Insurance industry simply
pocket any money saved. One recent study by the Congressional Budget
Office found that the benefits of capping malpractice would be "weak"
and "inconclusive." Meanwhile, such reforms would "undermine
incentives for safety," while making it "harder for some patients with
legitimate but difficult claims to find legal representation."

NO LINK BETWEEN CAPS AND PREMIUMS: Vice President Cheney would have
Americans believe there is a direct link between the insurance
premiums doctors pay and rising health-care costs. Not so. Last year,
Weiss Ratings, Inc., an independent financial services analysis
company, issued a comprehensive study showing that in 19 states with
malpractice caps, physicians suffered a 48.2 percent jump in their
premiums. Meanwhile, in 32 states without caps, premiums rose by only
35.9 percent. In other words, there is no connection between caps and
premium rates. Instead, the premium problem comes from insurance
industry pricing practices that gouge doctors. While malpractice
payouts actually went down by 8.2 percent between 2001 and 2002, there
was no corresponding decrease in doctors' premiums, meaning the
insurance industry pocketed the difference. The Des Moines Register
points out, "There's simply no correlation between lawsuits and
insurance rates. Rather, insurance rates are tied to the climate of
the stock and bond market, where insurance companies invest much of
their money."

CALIFORNIA CASE STUDY: The state of California put medical malpractice
caps in place in 1975. A 1993 study of medical malpractice insurance
in California showed the caps had "done little more than enrich
California malpractice insurers with excessive profits, at the expense
of malpractice victims." According to a study released in California
yesterday, damage caps now come at the expense of the most gravely
injured.

GETTING WHAT IT PAID FOR: Why won't President Bush and Vice President
Cheney address the real issue of insurance reform? The insurance
industry has paid a pretty penny to protect its interests. Since 2000,
the industry has donated over $67 million to President Bush and his
allies in Congress, twice as much as they've contributed on the other
side of the aisle.

CBO PUTS IT IN PERSPECTIVE: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this
year found that "even large savings in premiums can have only a small
direct impact on health care spending--private or
governmental--because malpractice costs account for less than 2% of
that spending." In fact, an analysis by the CBO shows capping Medicare
malpractice would benefit physicians and doctors, but would reduce
private health insurance premiums a measly 0.4 percent. Want proof?
According to the CBO, there is "no statistically significant
difference in per capita health care spending between states with and
without limits on malpractice torts."

DEFENSIVE MEDICINE DEFENSE: The White House blames an increase in
health care costs on the defensive medicine doctors practice. It's a
strategy, the administration says, doctors employ to protect
themselves from lawsuits. Not so, said the CBO report. Instead,
ordering more expensive tests "may be motivated less by liability
concerns than by the income it generates for physicians."

DOCTORS NOT DRIVEN OUT: The administration has often claimed that
recovery caps were also necessary because "lawsuits are driving docs
out of the practice, which means there's less availability." While
there are isolated markets with problems, a report by the General
Accountability Office found that nationally, "reductions in supply by
health care providers could not be substantiated or did not widely
affect access to health care." In fact, in Pennsylvania and West
Virginia – two of the 19 states supposedly in a "full-blown liability
crisis," the number of doctors per capita has actually gone up over
the past six years, according to the GAO. Bob Herbert of The New York
Times took a look last month at how the Bush administration is cooking
up the myth of a crisis.

Clearly, Edwards and Cheney are aligned...they both schill for insurance
then.


"basskisser" wrote in message
om...
As usual, Cheney is lying again. This from the progress report
7/20/04:

HEALTH CARE
Dick Cheney, Insurance Salesman

Speaking at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo yesterday, Vice
President Cheney called for a cap on medical malpractice awards. But
instead of shilling for the insurance industry, Cheney's time would
have been better spent in Ohio reviewing this fact sheet on
malpractice from the Ohio Universal Health Care Network. As it
documents, the "solution" proposed by the White House is really
designed to take the heat off the insurance industry that is fueling
the problem, and bankrolling the Bush campaign. As other studies
document, malpractice caps do little - if anything - to reduce
doctors' and patients' insurance rates. Insurance industry simply
pocket any money saved. One recent study by the Congressional Budget
Office found that the benefits of capping malpractice would be "weak"
and "inconclusive." Meanwhile, such reforms would "undermine
incentives for safety," while making it "harder for some patients with
legitimate but difficult claims to find legal representation."

NO LINK BETWEEN CAPS AND PREMIUMS: Vice President Cheney would have
Americans believe there is a direct link between the insurance
premiums doctors pay and rising health-care costs. Not so. Last year,
Weiss Ratings, Inc., an independent financial services analysis
company, issued a comprehensive study showing that in 19 states with
malpractice caps, physicians suffered a 48.2 percent jump in their
premiums. Meanwhile, in 32 states without caps, premiums rose by only
35.9 percent. In other words, there is no connection between caps and
premium rates. Instead, the premium problem comes from insurance
industry pricing practices that gouge doctors. While malpractice
payouts actually went down by 8.2 percent between 2001 and 2002, there
was no corresponding decrease in doctors' premiums, meaning the
insurance industry pocketed the difference. The Des Moines Register
points out, "There's simply no correlation between lawsuits and
insurance rates. Rather, insurance rates are tied to the climate of
the stock and bond market, where insurance companies invest much of
their money."

CALIFORNIA CASE STUDY: The state of California put medical malpractice
caps in place in 1975. A 1993 study of medical malpractice insurance
in California showed the caps had "done little more than enrich
California malpractice insurers with excessive profits, at the expense
of malpractice victims." According to a study released in California
yesterday, damage caps now come at the expense of the most gravely
injured.

GETTING WHAT IT PAID FOR: Why won't President Bush and Vice President
Cheney address the real issue of insurance reform? The insurance
industry has paid a pretty penny to protect its interests. Since 2000,
the industry has donated over $67 million to President Bush and his
allies in Congress, twice as much as they've contributed on the other
side of the aisle.

CBO PUTS IT IN PERSPECTIVE: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this
year found that "even large savings in premiums can have only a small
direct impact on health care spending--private or
governmental--because malpractice costs account for less than 2% of
that spending." In fact, an analysis by the CBO shows capping Medicare
malpractice would benefit physicians and doctors, but would reduce
private health insurance premiums a measly 0.4 percent. Want proof?
According to the CBO, there is "no statistically significant
difference in per capita health care spending between states with and
without limits on malpractice torts."

DEFENSIVE MEDICINE DEFENSE: The White House blames an increase in
health care costs on the defensive medicine doctors practice. It's a
strategy, the administration says, doctors employ to protect
themselves from lawsuits. Not so, said the CBO report. Instead,
ordering more expensive tests "may be motivated less by liability
concerns than by the income it generates for physicians."

DOCTORS NOT DRIVEN OUT: The administration has often claimed that
recovery caps were also necessary because "lawsuits are driving docs
out of the practice, which means there's less availability." While
there are isolated markets with problems, a report by the General
Accountability Office found that nationally, "reductions in supply by
health care providers could not be substantiated or did not widely
affect access to health care." In fact, in Pennsylvania and West
Virginia - two of the 19 states supposedly in a "full-blown liability
crisis," the number of doctors per capita has actually gone up over
the past six years, according to the GAO. Bob Herbert of The New York
Times took a look last month at how the Bush administration is cooking
up the myth of a crisis.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 05:33:19 +0000, 1900 wrote:

Clearly, Edwards and Cheney are aligned...they both schill for insurance
then.

LOL, I don't think insurance companies much care for ambulance chasers,
especially when they are as successful at it as Edwards.