Rick Santorum and Medical Malpractice
Republican presidential hopeful candidate Rick Santorum is a big advocate of medical malpractice tort reform. In 1996, his wife Karen brought a medical malpractice case alleging a negligent chiropractic manipulation that caused a herniated disc in her back. She got a jury verdict of $350,000 which was reduced to $175,000 by the trial judge, presumably after a remittur motion. Her medical bills that allegedly resulted from the malpractice were $18,000.
You knew this already? Yeah, I guess I have been living under a rock. I can't believe I missed this.
Where is Santorum on this issue? The answer comes in Mitt Romney flavor. In the House of Representatives in 1994, Santorum introduced a bill to cap non-economic damages awarded by juries in medical malpractice cases at $250,000.
His wife's lawsuit, I guess, opened up his heart. In 2003, Had Not Yet Lost By 20 Points Senator Santorum said the $250,000 cap set in Congressman Jim Greenwood’s bill was “too low.” The next day, he told The Associated Press that he’d “been hesitant to sign on to any bill that has a cap.” Alas, he is not solidly back in the tort reformers corner. Enough time has passed since his wife's medical malpractice lawsuit, I guess.
There is no way on earth I would vote for Rick Santorum. But he struck me - and I think voters -as a guy who practiced what he preached. Then, he went into the whole, as Jon Stewart put it, "Class warfare against the rich -- excuse me, job creators -- is wrong, unless we're talking about Mitt Romney" hypocrisy. Now, Santorum is exposed for his "everyone should be capped on malpractice awards except my family" position on tort reform (I won't even get into his, "I voted for every spending bill that raised the deficit, but now I'm a hawk on spending" problem).
