'Loser Pays,' Texas Small Business Wins

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268436/loser-pays-texas-small-business-wins-stephen-demaura

May 31, 2011

By Stephen DeMaura 

Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas state legislature want the rest of the country to hear this message loud and clear: The Lone Star State is open for business.

In a unanimous vote last week the Texas senate adopted ‘loser pays’ tort-reform legislation, which says that a plaintiff must pay the winning party’s legal fees if their complaint is judged to be groundless. On Wednesday, the Texas house concurred. Governor Perry, who had championed the legislation from its inception, signed it Monday night. 

The Wall Street Journal editorialized, “This Texas upgrade will build on reforms in 2003 and 2005 that have vastly improved the legal climate in what has not coincidentally become the country’s best state for job creation. Texas rewrote everything from class-action certification to product liability” — and I would add the state’s medical-malpractice reforms to that list.

No wonder the nation’s CEOs list Texas as the best state for business.

The success of ‘loser pays’ is destined to be viewed as a key victory for the Republican legislature over a group that once enjoyed almost limitless influence in the state: the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which lobbied aggressively against the law. Prior to the reforms instituted in 2003 and 2005, Texas was an ambulance chaser’s paradise. Nowadays, even the $13 million the trial lawyers spent to defeat Perry and other pro-tort-reform Republicans in the 2010 election had little impact. In a stunning rebuke, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stared down the trial lawyer lobby and shepherded the measure through to a 31–0 vote in the Senate.

Perry is blazing an important trail for other governors such as South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett, Florida’s Rick Scott, Oklahoma’s Mary Fallin, and Alabama’s Robert Bentley, all of who ran and won while proposing similar legal-reform ideas.

Why are these types of reforms so important?

The cost of tort litigation is strangling the U.S. and small businesses in particular. According to Marie Gryphon of the Manhattan Institute, the cost of tort litigation topped $247billion in 2006. The National Federation of Independent Business estimates that tort litigation costs small businesses over $105 billion annually, $35 billion of which comes out of their pockets, not insurance.

‘Loser pays’ reform will result in fewer frivolous lawsuits, lower litigation costs, and more expedient justice for legitimate claims. Just as important, the passage of loser pays is yet another example of how Texas has taken the national lead in job creation and the fostering of a strong business climate. Immediately following Perry’s earlier reforms, the number ofphysicians applying to practice rose by 60 percent, filling a increasing need across the state, according to the Journal.

Likewise, by tossing off the threatening shroud of frivolous lawsuits, Texas is removing yet another barrier to small business expansion and job growth.

In a country groping in the darkness for ways to create more good-paying jobs, the nation’s governors should look to the aggressive reform agenda in Texas to light their path.

— Stephen DeMaura is the president of Americans for Job Security. 

Healthcare - My prospective

By Richard ”Dick” Olson

The Monadnock Ledger Transcript’s June 2 editorial “A sane policy on health-care needed now” appears to have been written with the editor’s heads in the sand to borrow their quote.

First of all, our purported representatives in Washington have not had first hand experience dealing with Medicare or health-care insurance companies so they do not have a clue. They do not pay for any of their care because we pay for it.

I have had the fortunate (or unfortunate) experience with Medicare since 2006 and with Government run health-care (Veteran’s Administration) since 2006.

When I retired in 2005, my “COBRA” health-care premiums were almost $900 per month so I studied various plans for a year to look for the best value. Somewhat to my surprise, I found out that my government would deduct monthly premiums from my well earned Social Security benefits.

In 2006, I enrolled in Medicare Parts A & B and also applied for health-care benefits from the VA because I earned those benefits by serving my country for four years during the Vietnam conflict. Of course, I found out that my benefits would be limited because I was not disabled. I signed up for prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D and found that I would pay a private insurer a monthly premium and that if I used medications that cost over $2,000 to $3,000 annually, I would not be covered if I went beyond those amounts until I spent about $2,000 of my own money. (Called the donut hole).

Here are some of the wonderful things I have learned since 2006.

● No one except yourself will manage your healthcare and its costs.

● Trust no one with health-care and its costs! I trusted AARP because I have been a member since 1991 only to find out that their sponsored health-care provider charged me $660 more per year than Anthem Blues or others. AARP receives a “kick-back” from anyone they endorse

● The health-care I receive from the Veteran’s Administration (Manchester) is good, however, I have received medications without having them discussed with me and making me pay a co-pay that is not competitive with Wal-Mart. (Annual costs for generics are $96.00 vs. Wal-Mart’s $40.00)

● I must maintain a medical relationship with my Doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic in Keene so that if I need emergency care I can get in locally. 

● Wal-Mart is a very “Big Business” as derided by the Ledger, however it is helping us retirees more than Washington has.

I also find it interesting that all health-care providers, including hospitals advertise their services. I would estimate that the Ledger, get more that 30% of their advertising revenue from MCH and others.

Washington and Concord (Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc.) should stop tinkering with citizen’s rights and start major reforms that are needed to fix the system.

To name a few:

· Institute Tort reform to limit abusive law suits and encourage people to become medical professionals.

· Stop the NH legislature for stealing $110 million in surplus from the medical malpractice insurance fund run by the Joint Underwriting Association.

· Restrict lobbyists in the Health-care industries from access to and “bribing” our elected representatives. (This was a campaign promise Mr. President!)

· Give equal access and benefits to elected officials and have them become part of the system. (Another campaign promise Mr. President!)

· Take legal action against “bi-partisan non-profit” organizations that use their organizations to profit from healthcare.

· Establish / strengthen grants, endowments, scholarships for students willing to enter the medical professional field (Nurses, technicians, surgeons, Doctors) and encourage General practitioners.

· Establish a reward system to encourage cost control, control of infection, innovative healthcare, and better generic medications.

Much of this is the “same-old, same-old but our elected officials are not listening to their constituents but are working their own self-serving agendas.