Colorado Springs Gazette staff editorial 

Some of the same Colorado Democrats who want health care reform, promising to make it more available and affordable, support a proposal by trial lawyers that would run up the cost of care and aggravate a doctor shortage that has only begun.

Politicians who feign support for affordable health care, while supporting Senate Bill 164, are either confused or they’re lying. Either way, they’re paying favor to trial lawyers — a loyal constituency — while selling out the cause of health care for all.

The three Democrats on the Senate’s five-member State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee recently voted to move forward with Senate Bill 164, which would substantially increase the awards granted by judges and juries in malpractice suits. If the bill passes, doctors would be hit with increases in their malpractice insurance premiums. Senate President Peter Groff introduced the bill, and Sens. Abel Tapia, Chris Romer and Sue Windels voted it through committee.

Rocky Mountain News staff editorial

...A bill pending in the state Senate threatens to unravel Colorado's "stable" environment for medical liability law - and it could undermine Gov. Bill Ritter's plans to expand health care coverage for low-income Coloradans.

Senate Bill 164, by Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, would boost the award a patient can receive for pain and suffering (noneconomic damages) in medical malpractice lawsuits from $300,000 to nearly $450,000. That's a big leap, even if some adjustment to account for inflation may well be in order.

Far more disturbing is that the bill would add a new tier of damages in these cases that could blow the lid off of the reasonable limits the legislature had placed on most jury awards....

Read full editorial: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/20/wrong-way-on-damages/ 

Commentary published in The Denver Post

By Mark Hillman

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it." - Mark Twain

You might say the same goes for health care. Politicians are constantly tinkering, making promises they can't deliver, and usually creating a bigger mess than the one they promised to fix.

Ironically, despite the abysmal record of lawmakers and bureaucrats to produce lower prices or create greater choice, the public still clamors for government to "do something." Perhaps the more logical outcry should be: "undo something."

The newest solution du jour is mandated universal coverage — i.e., requiring everyone to buy health insurance and/or requiring all employers to buy it for their employees.

Using chemotherapy to treat the common cold

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial 

We’ll have time in the months ahead to more carefully dissect the options and recommendations put forward by the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform, in response to the fact that many Coloradans lack health care coverage. But our initial response to one of the proposals, with a price tag of $26.6 billion a year, is that somebody hasn’t been taking their meds.
    Give these people something to clear their heads, stat! Give it to them whether or not they have health insurance!