Obama Adm. Tries to Lock Out Lawyer Protection for Patients on Medicaid

Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wesley J. Smith

One of the reasons I turned against single payer is that I believe–as an advocate who learned the trade at the knees of Ralph Nader–in the tort system. It provides a free market remedy in a free market system.

Tort law is especially important in the health care marketplace, where private health insurers that deny benefits can have the bottom line sued out from under them for “bad faith”–if the company refuses clearly owed coverage. We’re talking punitive damages, baby! Just the threat can keep avaricious executives from crossing the line.

But under single payer, that protection evaporates. The government can provide benefits–and it can take them away–as we saw when Arizona stopped covering organ transplantation due to a Medicaid budget crisis. Now, the Obama Administration has gone to court in an amicus brief to make sure it stays that way. From the NYT story:

Medicaid recipients and health care providers cannot sue state officials to challenge cuts in Medicaid payments, even if such cuts compromise access to health care for poor people, the Obama administration has told the Supreme Court. States around the country, faced with severe budget problems, have been reducing Medicaid rates for doctors, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and other providers.

the rest