by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Tommy Thompson, secretary of the United States Department of Health & Human Services, will be in town Tuesday morning to host an open forum, town hall meeting that will address the current state of health care in the United States. Hosted by the Omni from 9 a.m. until noon, Thompson has invited a wide variety of people to attend the forum.
Those on the invite list include consumers, employees, large and small business owners and health care providers. The forum, entitled “America Talks Healthcare,” is intended to look at every aspect of health care and address potential solutions to the rapid rise in health care costs that are affecting everyone from employers to physicians and, ultimately, health care providers who are forced to pass the costs on to consumers.
One group missing, however, and the one Thompson partially blames for rising health care costs, is attorneys, specifically trial lawyers. On his website, Thompson — who couldn’t be reached for comment — explains that many physicians either move out of Florida or change professions because they are unable to pay exorbitant medical malpractice premiums.
“What is a problem for them has developed into a crisis for patients,” said Thompson on the site. “The people who end up suffering are the citizens of Florida.”
Local trial lawyer Howard Coker takes exception to this train of thought and finds it especially disturbing that no trail lawyers were invited to the town hall meeting. Coker contends that there are many reasons to blame for the rise in health care costs in America and the trail lawyers are more than happy to sit down and talk about reaching some sort of compromise. Coker also contends Thompson’s assessment, and the basis for the meeting, is based on a narrow study that doesn’t reflect the system as a whole.
“The study is so flawed,” said Coker. “His statistics are from certain states and he [Thompson] cherry picked those states.”
Coker said most lawyers only want two things — accountability to patients and quality care. Unfortunately, he says, physicians have become victims of the business of health care.
“The doctors are captives of the HMOs. They are treated like vendors,” said Coker. “The HMOs want to control the ability to earn money. Health care is being run like a business as opposed to a service. It has to give somewhere.”
Coker believes Thompson, doctors and HMOs would like to place a cap on medical malpractice claims — a decision several states, such as California, have made. The cap would limit the amount of money a jury could award a plaintiff in a malpractice lawsuit. Coker says a cap, which in theory is supposed to lower health care premiums from the top down, is not the answer.
“They [doctors] think that’s the cure all,” said Coker. “In states with caps, they have not lowered premiums. In California, they approved the cap 10 years ago and they have higher premiums than states without caps.”
Coker says one thing will save the system: quality health care.
“Somebody has to think about the patient and the doctors’ accountability to the patients,” said Coker, who plans on attending the forum, whether he’s invited or not. “I’m going. I’m sure there are some interesting people.”