CMS Update                                      1/16/03

Dear President Bush,

   Today in Scranton, Pa., you stood in an auditorium and took pot shots at medical malpractice victims and their litigations calling them "junk lawsuits and frivolous" that clutter the Courts. And all the while, denying to that very auditorium the victims maimed, crippled, and with lost loved ones of the medical malpractice that leads to those litigations. The truth of the matter is that medical malpractice litigations have been decreasing for over 10 years. Lawyers only take cases with a very high possibility of success. Only 1 in 7 of actual medical malpractice is ever discovered and makes it into the legal system. The insurance industry has lost vast sums of money not from medical malpractice settlements but from their corporate investments in the stock market. And so to shore up the revenue from those losses they have found a cash cow from premiums from doctors for medical malpractice coverage. How about Government investigating the insurance industry? The medical community would have you believe these cases represent a lottery in which every victim wins. Once again the truth of the matter is that many years go by and then failure in a Court system that protects the medical community. Doctors refuse to take responsibility for their actions. And yet, when queried they mainly agree to the need for a Single Payer National Health Plan. Profits in healthcare are a oxymoron and totally incompatible. Whatever happened to that age-old Hippocratic oath? Something about doing no harm. A national healthcare system would institute finance reform, regulation, and should include a "no-fault" insurance system for medical error. Doctors would be held accountable for their actions and compensation for the victims would take place. Today medicine functions like the old west where anything goes because there is nothing in place to protect you when you see a doctor. You are on your own when your doctor closes his office door while you’re there.

     And so Mr. Bush, since you’re getting your information from the doctors, a good balance would be hearing the stories from the victims as well. Bill Frist will not move you towards truthful revelations. His family association with Columbia-HCA, one of the largest "for profit" hospital systems in the country should exclude him from any activities involving healthcare, especially since they are under investigation and have paid hundreds of millions in fines. No one has mentioned that he has a serious conflict of interest.

     Speak to us, Mr. President. We have a great deal to say on the subject and we invite you to hear what the system is keeping under wraps. The medical laundry is very dirty.

                                                           Pearl Korn
                                                           Elizabeth LaBozetta
                                                           Stephanie Speken
                                                           Ralph H. Speken, M.D.
                                                           Rosario Zisa