Dr Boustany and Tort Reform?
On Wednesday night, President Obama gave a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he discussed the importance of overhauling our health care system. The timing of the speech couldn’t have been better, especially considering how contentious the debate has been over the previous month. August has been loaded with screaming at town hall meetings, protests where people are carrying guns, violent and frightening rhetoric and some pretty wild claims.
The President’s speech was a fairly concise one, at least in terms of outlining what he expected this plan to do and how much he expected it to cost. There are a few details that need to be hammered out, but the President made it clear that he is open to suggestions and negotiations.
As is the custom, the opposing party was given the opportunity to deliver a response to the President’s speech, and to deliver their side of things they chose Louisiana Congressman Charles Boustany, who offered a speech that was fairly measured in comparison to some of the protestors out there this summer, or even in comparison to some of his compatriots who were in the audience during Obama’s speech.
But what we found indicative of the Republican’s stance on health care reform was that the man they chose to deliver their rebuttal is a heart surgeon who has been sued for malpractice three times. After all, who better to articulate the Republican platform of “tort reform, tort reform and more tort reform” more than someone who would benefit greatly from it?
Dr. Boustany said during his response, “We’re grateful the president mentioned medical liability reform and we hope he’s serious,” adding: “we need to establish tough liability reform standards” and discourage “junk lawsuits.”
In the interest of fairness, we should mention that for a heart surgeon, getting sued three times in twenty years is actually a pretty good record considering how high risk heart surgery can be. Dr. Boustany still has his medical license and his practice is in good standing. But there are also apparently some other lawsuits in his past that have very little to do with medicine and everything to do with the “My lawsuits are just fine” ethos of many of the tort reformers.
First the medical suits:
In 1992, a woman named Melanie Malagarie filed a lawsuit against Dr. Boustany for a surgery that was performed on her daughter. The daughter suffered from a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, which is a congenital heart defect that causes oxygen-poor blood to be pumped through the body. The second surgery resulted in complications and the Malagarie’s filed suit. The Louisiana State Review Board concurred that there were missteps involved and awarded the plaintiff’s $600,000.
In 1995, a woman named Delilah Hays filed a suit against Dr. Boustany after an angioplasty surgery resulted in the amputation of a few toes. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount after arbitration.
And finally, in 2000, Geraldine Arceneaux was awarded $1.2 million after her leg was amputated due to complications following a bypass surgery. Before the suit was filed, Ms. Arceneaux filed a complaint with the State Review Board, who agreed that his conduct was “below the accepted level of care.”
As we said before, three suits in a twenty year career as a heart surgeon is not a bad record. So we can accept that Dr. Boustany can speak about the medical profession with some authority. But if one of the primary solutions for what ails not only our health care system but also our whole national fabric is tort reform (as so many Republicans suggest,) how to explain Dr. Bousanty’s lawsuit against a construction company over a pool resurfacing job? We know that doesn’t sound particularly frivolous, but what about the fact the he sued them for damages over “mental anguish?”
We have no idea if the Republicans vetted Dr. Bousanty before they threw him out there to give the speech, but it seems obvious that perhaps he should have been vetted more. We understand the premise, of course. The idea that a doctor would have some firsthand experience and good ideas about health care reform is certainly a good one. But that idea loses its luster if the doctor that is peddling tort reform as a cure for what ails us is someone who has spent more than his fair share of time in court. It’s the equivalent of an oil company executive telling us that we should all buy Hummers in order to stop global warming.
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