Personal Injury Law

Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Speaks out on Behalf of Illinois Medical Malpractice

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

The President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association has spoken out on behalf of Illinois medical malpractice attorneys in the Chicago Tribune recently. In Peter Flowers? editorial he spoke of the unsubstantiated claims that have been floating around the country with the recent health care debate. The calls for limitations on medical malpractice claims are nothing more than a transparent attempt by the insurance industry to increase profits and pay for its shareholders and executives. Numerous studies have concluded that medical-malpractice costs account for less than 2 percent of overall health-care spending. A more recent report from Public Citizen has shown that the figure is actually as low as .6 percent. Therefore limiting the legal rights of injured patients will not provide the true savings needed to fix the health care debate. Instead, there needs to be a focus on limiting medical errors. By focusing on the 98,000 people die every year due to medical mistakes, health care reform is better addressed. If these errors are reduced, it will reduce the number of injured patients seeking legal recourse. By eliminating the number of medical errors, the possibility of medical malpractice becomes obsolete. To read the medical malpractice editorial, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).