Disclosure: I'm proud to be working with the American Association for Justice to protect patients' rights.

With the passage of Health Care Reform in the House, the stakes are rising by the day. As we saw this weekend with the adoption of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, changes to the bill can be made with blinding speed and millions of Americans can lose out in hours.

Thanks to a well-funded and decades long campaign by the insurance companies, "tort reform" -- the systematic denial of fundamental legal rights to patients harmed by medical negligence -- always looms when a heavily lobbied Congress talks about health care.

As Joanne Doroshow wrote on Huffington Post:

If you listened to the rants and harangues of those trying to kill the House health care bill on Saturday, you couldn't miss the endless blathering about tort reform, a term that almost no one really understands unless you happen to be a victim of medical malpractice or corporate wrongdoing. And then, you know.

Tort "reform" is a doozy of a misnomer. There is certainly nothing positive or beneficial about it. Tort reform laws, which now exist it nearly every state (although you'd never guess that after listening to those complaining how much we need it), make it more difficult for average people who have been injured, assaulted, or harmed in any way, to sue those responsible. The tort reform movement was created and funded by insurance companies, manufacturers of dangerous products, the tobacco industry, the medical profession, and other industries and professions. This movement is backed by enormous sums of money funneled primarily into conservative "think-tanks," public relations, polling and lobbying firms. Tort reforms always hurt patients, consumers and average people. They are also extremely dangerous for the rest of us.

The video at the top of this post is part of an effort to tell the stories of the real people whose lives are devastated by medical malpractice and "tort reform". Learn more at 98,000Reasons.org.

There's more...

Disclosure: I'm proud to be working with the American Association for Justice to protect patients' rights.

"Tort Reform" has long been a bugaboo of the right wing. A hugely successful one. More than 46 states have enacted some form of it -- every one seriously diminishing our legal rights to seek redress in a civil court. Now it's being thrown into the mix of the health care debate.

As a Texan, I fought the 2003 state constitutional amendment that gutted patients' rights. Now it's utterly evident that Texas "Tort Reform" did nothing to cut medical costs.

AAJ President Anthony Tarricone blogged yesterday on the Seminal:

As part of a "grand bargain" to create a bipartisan health care bill, some have said tort reform should be included. For most people, the term "tort reform" is empty and meaningless. But here's what it means: taking away the legal rights of patients, injured through no fault of their own, and preventing them from obtaining legal recourse. And it isn't fact-driven or grounded in reality; rather, it's just part of the Washington sideshow to distract from what really plagues our country's health care system.

Look at what the actual data says: 98,000 people dead every year from preventable medical errors, at a cost of $29 billion. Countless more are seriously injured with astronomical costs. The Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office have looked at tort reform multiple times, and said it will save practically no money. They also found no evidence of so-called "defensive medicine," finding that doctors run more tests because of the fee-for-service structure, or because of the benefits extra tests have on patient care.

Additionally, a 2006 study from Harvard found that 97% of cases were meritorious, totally debunking the idea that frivolous lawsuits plague our courts. And while 46 states have enacted some kind of tort reform, health care costs have continued to skyrocket, while injured patients often can't seek justice.

The AAJ has launched a new web site: 98,000 Reasons which punches enough holes in the case for trading away patients' rights as part of the health care reform that anyone can see through the B.S.  

There's more...