Al Gore, fuzzy around the edges. W
Thought I'd share a thoughtful essay on my new favorite TV show. W
Remember Al Gore droning about the Dingell-Norwood bill in last fall's debates? The President scored a huge legislative victory this week by bringing Charlie Norwood, one of that bill's sponsors, to a compromise on the Patient's Bill of Rights. The House of Representatives backed the compromise version, breaking last week's logjam.
Since both parties agreed on virtually 90% of the proposed protections, the compromise bill has only a few significant differences even from the proposals backed by liberal expansionsists like Senator Kennedy. Unlike the Democrats' proposal, the compromise version isn't an unlimited bonanza for trial lawyers - c'mon, did you really think patients would ever see a dime from lawsuits? - it's got an upper limit of one-and-a-half million dollars on non-ecomonic damages, with another possible $1.5 million for punitive damages.
"Non-economic" is an important word. That means there's no cap on economic damages, like medical bills, lost wages, and so on. The $1.5 milion cap limits only intagnible claims like "pain and suffering," with another possible $1.5 million for punitive damages. The article in the local rag conveniently obscures that fact, but it's significant, and here's why.
I used to work for a firm that defended medical malpractice cases. Every once in a while, we'd get a wrongful death case. Even in the wildest dreams of the plaintiff's lawyers, those claims never sought more than two million, usually closer to one million, including economic and non-economic damages. A million, rarely two, for the ultimate bad ending. Most of that million or two would come from economic damages - lost income from a supporting spouse, medical bills incurred trying to save the patient, and so on. So the limit on non-ecomonic damages proposed in this compromise bill should be more than ample for just about every case where an HMO makes a serious mistake.
But that's not good enough for the Democrats. Nowrwood asked them:
Isn't this what we have been fighting for all these years? What are you holding out for?
They are holding out for their trial-lawyer friends to have unlimited power to threaten deep-pocketed insurance comapnies. Mind you, if the Democrats have their way, I'll make a lot more money over the next several years, because when these lawsuits mushroom - like they did for nursing homes, but exponentially worse - any lawyer who can read a medical record will eventually get a piece.
Notwithstanding the Democrats' efforts to line my pockets, I think the cap is a good idea - one that should be extended to doctors as well. W
Senate Democrats sunk the nomination of Mary Gall to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission this week, in a straight party-line vote.
Her supporters characterized the opposition as based more in politics than substance, largely because her renomination to the commission -- by former President Clinton -- went unopposed in 1999. She also had the support of a Democratic commission member.
Let's get this straight - when Clinton appoints her to the Commission, not a single Senator votes against her, then when Bush nominates hear to chair the Commission, every Democrat - including some who voted for her last time around - voted to reject her? I guess that's what happens when you let the Party of Clinton play with legislative power. W
Three cheers! There's a new blogger in town, and it sounds like he's got his head on straight: The Capitol Warning. This is great - I'm looking forward to adding another right-minded fellow to Weblogs-Social-DC functions. The two of us might be able to persuade the others of the inherent correectness of our views, where just the one consistently failed. Bookmark this guy - he's good.
Virginia Democrats, desperate for a victory, any victory, have resorted to dirty tricks in the governor's race:
Is Howard Stern a Mark Warner supporter, too? On Jim Gilmore's monthly radio call-in show yesterday, the Virginia governor gamely fielded snarky comments from "Jennifer from Alexandria" about Gilmore's handpicked candidate to succeed him, Republican Mark Earley. Listening to "Jennifer" ask Gilmore such questions as "Have you expressed concern to Mr. Earley to really kind of get his act together?" The Post's Craig Timberg thought he recognized the voice of Amanda Crumley, communications director for Democratic candidate Warner. Afterward, Crumley stopped just short of fessing up to the prank call, but conceded, "You've got to break up the monotony somehow."
The next day, Crumley wrote letters of apology to both Earley and the radio station, WTOP, said the radio station. W
The death of four firefighters in the Northwest reminds us that regulations are not free, and government actions have consequences. Personally, I'd trade every species of those fish to have those four people back, but my value system may not appeal to all. W
Terry Bowden interviews Randy Walker, coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team.
I'll say this about [quarterback] Zak Kustok: I've seen guys and I've coached guys who throw it better, I've seen guys who run it better, haven't seen many smarter, but I know this -- I've never coached or been around a quarterback who, just by walking on the field, makes 10 guys better.
John Lott debunks the report of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, despite attempts to silence him.
The [Democratic] majority [on the Commission] has consistently acted to stifle debate. First, the commission report was leaked to the New York Times before minority Republican members were even given a copy. Then the majority refused to provide their data to the minority before a Senate hearing last month. As noted earlier, they are still unwilling to explain how they calculated their results. Despite promises to the Senate that the minority report would be disseminated by the commission, the majority decided two weeks ago to allow only the portions of the minority report that omitted any references to the research that I had done.
Because the majority refused to provide the minority commissioners with any resources for a statistical analysis, I agreed to do such work without compensation. Despite numerous precedents to the contrary, the majority now argues that only work by consultants paid by the commission can be included in any dissent. Amazingly, the minority is not even allowed to cite my work regarding the Florida elections. How then is the minority supposed to be able to produce any contrary evidence? What is the majority afraid of?
Rational debate. The wolf-criers are always afraid of rational debate since it detracts from their appeals to emotion. Lott may be a brilliant economist and statistician, but politically, he's a babe in the woods. W
Eco-freaks endorse vandalism. Link from the Ironminds weblog. W
This "round of hearings" is the reason I won't see my wife at all during the next month - her law firm is representing some of the parties involved in deciding if and how to charge for streaming radio broadcasts. W
Is the American Medical Association in touch with its members, or is it committing political malpractice? W
Senator Leahy used to have strong opinions about the so-called "vacancy crisis" in our federal judiciary:
Any week in which the Senate does not confirm three judges is a week in which the Senate is failing to address the vacancy crisis. Any fortnight in which we have gone without a judicial confirmation hearing marks 2 weeks in which the Senate is falling further behind.
So now that he's chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee, what's he doing?
Vacancies are now at their highest level since March 1994, 10 of President Bush's nominees have been before the Senate for 79 days, and it's time for Senator Leahy to show us just how sincere he really was.
ESPN's college football poll consensus is out, and look which Big Ten team is in the top fifteen:
Kansas State is No. 11 in the consensus with Michigan, Oregon State, Northwestern and UCLA in the top 15. LSU places 16th with Notre Dame, Washington, Mississippi State, Clemson, South Carolina, Ohio State, USC, Alabama and Wisconsin rounding out the consensus top 25.
Florida State, my other alma mater, is in the top four as usual, behind the overrated Hurricanes, Gators, and Sooners. W
There, I said it. I'll never say it again. W
Bored with apes? Go see Made. Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughan are together again, and any movie with either one of them is automatically worth seeing. Putting them together is just explosive. W
Last month, I posted a little tip about how to use social-engineering to fool customer service drones into actually helping you. Recently, Alex Scofield wrote to tell me:
After an infuriating 15-minute voice mail maze loop with AT&T "customer service", it suddenly occurred to me to try the stunt as outlined in your 6/24 blog entry. Worked like a charm! I called AT&T and went to the Join AT&T Long Distance option, where a human being took my call within a minute or two, then transferred me over to billing. Although it does little more than preach to the choir, The Economist's cover story deals with this issue in a general "State of Customer Service" piece that's worth a read.
So, try this at home, kids! And if anyone can dig up a free link to that story, feel free to let me know. W
