Health Insurance Reform
Rather than provide real solutions to the health care concerns of Americans, Republicans have focused on what they call "medical malpractice reform" — a proposal that many analysts say would do more harm than good.
Under the Republican approach, patients who suffer harm by a doctor or hospital would not have the rights they have today. Instead, they would face an arbitrary cap on "non-economic" damages, which disproportionately harms women, children, and the elderly. That means that a parent whose child was killed by an incompetent doctor or the family of an injured stay-at-home mom would lose both financially and emotionally. Only the insurance industry and the big HMOs would win.
In contrast, Democrats are working to bring down the cost of healthcare premiums while protecting patients' rights. Democrats opposed legislation passed by House Republicans to cap non-economic damages and limit patients' rights. Instead, Democrats want to directly address rising premiums by reforming malpractice insurance, stopping frivolous lawsuits, and providing direct assistance to communities that have a shortage of health care providers as a result of increases in malpractice insurance premiums.
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