Health care crisis demands congressional investigation

During last year's race for the Ohio Supreme Court, two special interest groups were out front in their support of candidates they believed would be sympathetic to their positions on the highly controversial issue of medical malpractice insurance.
On one side was the Ohio State Medical Association, which campaigned for the re-election of Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and the election of Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor, both Republicans.
On the other was the Ohio Trial Lawyers Association, which stumped for Democratic challengers Janet Burnside, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge, and Tim Black, a Hamilton County Municipal Court judge.
And in the middle of this political battle were the people of Ohio, who still don't have a clear picture as to why malpractice insurance for physicians is skyrocketing.
To hear the doctors tell it, greedy trial lawyers who file lawsuits on behalf of patients at the drop of a hat and ridiculously high jury awards for compensation are driving the increase in premiums for malpractice insurance.
But the lawyers counter that the insurance companies are using the malpractice lawsuits as an excuse and that the reason they have been forced to boost premiums for coverage is because they lost gobs of money playing the stock market.
And so it goes.
The winners
As for last year's election, Stratton was re-elected and O'Connor won retiring Justice Andrew Douglas' seat. However, during the campaign both candidates insisted that the medical association had no reason to assume that having them on the Supreme Court would ensure that the constitutionality of a tort reform law in Ohio would be upheld. Such a law has twice been passed by the General Assembly, but both times was rejected as unconstitutional by 4-3 votes of the Supreme Court. Now, doctors believe that there are four votes to uphold the law. A bill has passed the legislature and is expected to be signed this week by Gov. Bob Taft.
Trial lawyers, however, argue that in those states that have limits on what juries can award for pain and suffering, the cost of malpractice insurance has not decreased dramatically.
But from Nevada to West Virginia to Pennsylvania to Ohio, the insurance crisis is undermining the delivery of health care. Last week, almost all surgeries were canceled at four West Virginia hospitals as more than two dozen surgeons took leaves of absences. They were protesting the high cost of malpractice insurance.
In Pennsylvania, doctors were talked out of a one-day walk out by Gov.-elect Ed Rendell, who promised to fight for $220 million in aid for physicians.
And while state legislatures are moving quickly to enact tort reform laws, the fact remains that all over America the medical profession is under siege. A national response to this crisis is demanded.
There is talk that Congress may enact a federal law to limit awards for pain and suffering, but before it does, we believe there should be a congressional investigation into the root causes of this crisis.
A special congressional committee should delve into why the cost of insurance has skyrocketed. While the medical associations, trial lawyers groups and the insurance companies indulge in the blame-game, the American people are ultimately suffering.
Congress has a responsibility to find out what's going on.