President Barack Obama is waging a valiant effort to reform the health care system. The president’s reform proposals, while highly ambitious by any recent political measure, would not effect radical change to the current system. As stated by President Obama during his Sept. 9, 2009, address to Congress, his plan is to “build on what works and fix what doesn’t, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.” To this end, he laid out three basic goals of reform: (1) providing more security and stability to those who have health insurance; (2) providing insurance for those who do not have it; and, (3) slowing the growth of health care costs for families, businesses, and the government.
Since the health care system operates on a profit motive, and will continue to do so under the proposals, it seems logical that the civil justice system in holding health care providers accountable for misconduct should be utilized in any reform program seeking to improve the quality of care. There is no greater deterrence to corporate malfeasance than the risk of being held liable in dollar damages for injuries wrongfully caused. Unfortunately, what we have been hearing is the opposite.
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