From the ArcaMax Publishing, Dennis Prager Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/dennisprager/s-641589-619043
Those of us who are not true believers in expanded government are
certain of the following:
If the 1,990-page House Health Care Bill becomes law, the average
American will receive worse health care, American physicians will
decline in status and income, American medical innovation will
dramatically slow down and pharmaceutical discoveries will decline in
number and quality. And, of course, the economy of the United States
will deteriorate, perhaps permanently.
However, we are also certain that there is one American group that
will thrive -- trial lawyers. The very existence of a 1,990-page law
guarantees years of, if not more or less permanent, lawsuits. And the
law actually specifies that states that do not limit attorneys' fees
in cases of medical malpractice shall be financially rewarded.
What we are seeing here, therefore, is something unprecedented in our
history: Many trial lawyers will earn as much as most physicians, and
fewer and fewer physicians will earn as much as successful trial
lawyers.
Nothing better illustrates the reorientation -- indeed, the
transformation -- of values that will take place if the Democrats'
health care legislation is passed. Thanks to trial lawyer/Democratic
influence, for decades, we have been moving in the direction of
litigation-based society. But with a Democratic health care bill, the
movement will accelerate exponentially.
Much of our money, our innovation, our creativity and our ingenuity
will gravitate from medicine to law.
Young people who wish to make a good living -- and even talk
themselves into believing that they are also doing good for society --
will opt for trial law over medicine. As far back as memory goes for
living Americans, a young person who wished to do well, as well as do
good in life, would likely choose medicine as a profession if he were
bright enough and willing to put in the great number of hours
necessary.
In the last generation, many of the brightest chose finance -- as it
turned out, another often unproductive and often destructive arena --
to make a lot of money while believing that they, too, were doing a
lot of good for society.
With the financial professions in trouble and in some disrepute, and
medicine being financially and socially devalued -- doctors are
increasingly called "health care providers" (along with nurses,
physician's assistants, lab technicians, etc.; they're all the same)
-- law, especially trial law, will be seen as offering the most
opportunities for making a great deal of money.
No rational person argues that society doesn't need law or lawyers, or
that all lawyers, even trial lawyers, do no good. That is certainly
not what is being argued here.
But it does say something about a society when those who sue
physicians and hospitals make as much or more money than those who
heal disease. It says something about a society when it glorifies and
rewards those who litigate while it demonizes and punishes those who
produce the drugs and devices that keep its citizens alive and well.
This is part of the upside-down world the left is bequeathing to us
and our children in the name of health care "reform."
========
Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show and is
a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He
is the author of four books, most recently "Happiness Is a Serious
Problem" (HarperCollins). His website is www.dennisprager.com.