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American Morning
Radical Prescription
Aired February 25, 2003 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A group of medical experts says the country's love affair with lawsuits is creating a crisis in America's health care system, but surprisingly, the group called Common Good says that limiting malpractice awards is not enough to save the system. Instead, they are pushing for a whole new system of medical justice.
Here now with more on this radical prescription, the chairman of the group, Philip Howard.
Good to see you again. How are you?
So what is it that you have in mind? What do you want to scrap?
PHILIP HOWARD, CHAIRMAN, COMMON GOOD: Well, scrap the whole system of justice. What's happened, is it has all of the wrong incentives for doctors they hide in the corner, not honest with patients, not honest with each other. They practice defensive medicine. Last year, we did a Harris poll, where 80 percent of doctors said they ordered unnecessary tests just to put something in the record in case there is a lawsuit.
ZAHN: You understand that defensive behavior, don't you, when you face prospect of huge malpractice suits?
HOWARD: Sure, you could be ruined any time a sick person gets sicker. But the reason is because we don't have a reliable system, and we can't afford it. We have health care costs, people are losing coverage every day because the employers can't afford 10, 15 percent annual increases in the premiums.
ZAHN: So what is it you would put in place that would change the way doctors practice medicine today? because they do have to practice defensive medicine, at a cost of what I think you said is $100 billion a year.
HOWARD: A hundred billion dollars, it's a huge, huge cost. It's also bad for quality. You create an entirely new system, probably including an expert court of people who actually understand health care, who can protect the doctor who did the right thing, even if there is a bad outcome, and also, more speedily, get money to patients. Many patients are injured by mistakes and get nothing. We just don't have a reliable system now. It's like a free for all.
ZAHN: So what would it take to get the system started from ground zero? HOWARD: A little bit of a revolution, but we've got all the makings of it. I mean, it's a quiet revolution, because the governors can't afford it. I just got an e-mail from Jeb Bush. They can't afford health care in Florida. They have to do something to bring order to the system.
ZAHN: So how would the court system work then? There would be one single court where all malpractice cases would be ushered through?
HOWARD: Well, it could be a different court in each state, but you would have a specialized decision maker. Actually it might even be an agency. Some health care experts have said it should be like the workers comp system. If you are injured to the workplace, you're not allowed to bring a lawsuit. You can't bring a lawsuit. You go into the workers comp system. You can't get pain and suffering and punitive damages, and that sort of thing. All you get is the cost of the injury.
So many health care experts say, why don't we just go to a workers comp administrative proceeding, where people who are injured by mistakes can get compensation without waiting five years, and doctors aren't worried about being ruined.
ZAHN: You are talking about fundamentally challenging the underpinnings of political system, which of course has reached out to trial lawyers. Is there, any expectation on your part that any of the reforms would be considered by members of Congress?
HOWARD: Absolutely. The people who sign this petition that we've levied are the most important people in health care. They're not the AMA. We're talking about the heads of all of the important medical schools, heads of major hospitals, leading patient safety advocates. These are people who don't have an ax to grind. They're saying if we want a healthy America, we want to provide insurance to all Americans, if we want to be fair, fair to doctors and fair to patients, we have to create a reliable system, and everybody's been involved in the system knows it's not reliable.
ZAHN: So Common Good is taking out some full-page ads tomorrow in newspapers in advance of Congressional testimony. We'll be keeping an eye on this.
Philip Howard, always good to you have drop by. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 25, 2003 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: A group of medical experts says the country's love affair with lawsuits is creating a crisis in America's health care system, but surprisingly, the group called Common Good says that limiting malpractice awards is not enough to save the system. Instead, they are pushing for a whole new system of medical justice.
Here now with more on this radical prescription, the chairman of the group, Philip Howard.
Good to see you again. How are you?
So what is it that you have in mind? What do you want to scrap?
PHILIP HOWARD, CHAIRMAN, COMMON GOOD: Well, scrap the whole system of justice. What's happened, is it has all of the wrong incentives for doctors they hide in the corner, not honest with patients, not honest with each other. They practice defensive medicine. Last year, we did a Harris poll, where 80 percent of doctors said they ordered unnecessary tests just to put something in the record in case there is a lawsuit.
ZAHN: You understand that defensive behavior, don't you, when you face prospect of huge malpractice suits?
HOWARD: Sure, you could be ruined any time a sick person gets sicker. But the reason is because we don't have a reliable system, and we can't afford it. We have health care costs, people are losing coverage every day because the employers can't afford 10, 15 percent annual increases in the premiums.
ZAHN: So what is it you would put in place that would change the way doctors practice medicine today? because they do have to practice defensive medicine, at a cost of what I think you said is $100 billion a year.
HOWARD: A hundred billion dollars, it's a huge, huge cost. It's also bad for quality. You create an entirely new system, probably including an expert court of people who actually understand health care, who can protect the doctor who did the right thing, even if there is a bad outcome, and also, more speedily, get money to patients. Many patients are injured by mistakes and get nothing. We just don't have a reliable system now. It's like a free for all.
ZAHN: So what would it take to get the system started from ground zero? HOWARD: A little bit of a revolution, but we've got all the makings of it. I mean, it's a quiet revolution, because the governors can't afford it. I just got an e-mail from Jeb Bush. They can't afford health care in Florida. They have to do something to bring order to the system.
ZAHN: So how would the court system work then? There would be one single court where all malpractice cases would be ushered through?
HOWARD: Well, it could be a different court in each state, but you would have a specialized decision maker. Actually it might even be an agency. Some health care experts have said it should be like the workers comp system. If you are injured to the workplace, you're not allowed to bring a lawsuit. You can't bring a lawsuit. You go into the workers comp system. You can't get pain and suffering and punitive damages, and that sort of thing. All you get is the cost of the injury.
So many health care experts say, why don't we just go to a workers comp administrative proceeding, where people who are injured by mistakes can get compensation without waiting five years, and doctors aren't worried about being ruined.
ZAHN: You are talking about fundamentally challenging the underpinnings of political system, which of course has reached out to trial lawyers. Is there, any expectation on your part that any of the reforms would be considered by members of Congress?
HOWARD: Absolutely. The people who sign this petition that we've levied are the most important people in health care. They're not the AMA. We're talking about the heads of all of the important medical schools, heads of major hospitals, leading patient safety advocates. These are people who don't have an ax to grind. They're saying if we want a healthy America, we want to provide insurance to all Americans, if we want to be fair, fair to doctors and fair to patients, we have to create a reliable system, and everybody's been involved in the system knows it's not reliable.
ZAHN: So Common Good is taking out some full-page ads tomorrow in newspapers in advance of Congressional testimony. We'll be keeping an eye on this.
Philip Howard, always good to you have drop by. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
