Tom Coburn Splits With AMA, Medical Groups Over ObamaCare & Federal "Tort Reform"

It appears that Sen. Coburn's own "Back to Black" deficit reduction plan is the basis for many policy proposals under consideration by the super committee.

An article in today's "Roll Call" newspaper, which covers Congress, discusses Sen. Tom Coburn's extensive influence over members of the debt reduction "super committee" charged with finding over $1 trillion in federal budget cuts over a ten-year period. It appears that Sen. Coburn's own "Back to Black" deficit reduction plan, which he released in July, is the basis for many policy proposals under consideration by the super committee.

That could be a positive development in the fight to protect states' rights under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.  When it comes to our health care, Sen. Coburn's "Back to Black" plan substitutes market-based incentives and state-based decisions for the unconstitutional ObamaCare health insurance mandate.  He relies on the states to manage their own legal systems, and doesn't limit injured patients from taking a medical malpractice case to state court. Sen. Coburn also recognizes the terrible toll on patients as a result of deadly medical errors.

Sen. Coburn recommends that the federal government fund expert panels and health courts to resolve legal disputes over medical negligence. But it preserves the patient's right to access the state court system at any point; the state panels and health courts aren't a mandatory step. The Senator disagreed with federal tort reform solutions on constitutional grounds in an interview posted on June 30, and this plan is consistent with his objection.

In contrast, the American Medical Association and numerous medical groups not only continue to back ObamaCare, but are now asking the super committee to squash our constitutional rights and grant total immunity to medical professionals from their errors. They sent a letter to the super committee that ignores the clear consensus against federal tort reform by respected conservative legal experts such as Professor Randy Barnett; longtime tort reform proponents Walter Olson and Ted Frank; Republican Members of Congress such as Sen. Coburn and Reps. Ted Poe, John Duncan, and Ron Paul; and the largest association of state legislators in the country. Rolling over the Constitution and Bill of Rights is nothing new for the AMA and most of their fellow medical lobbying groups, whom I call the "co-conspirators in the enactment of ObamaCare."

The Founding Fathers' insistence on individual liberty and state sovereignty over health care and their legal systems means nothing to big medical lobbying groups. They're the walking definition of "Crony Capitalism" for continuously lobbying for national health care with total civil immunity. Limits in the Constitution on the enumerated powers for the federal government, and the 7th and 10th Amendments, are mere bumps in the road for the AMA and their cronies, which wants to interfere in local health care and tort law decisions so they can shape and manage our lives. There's nothing "constitutionally conservative" about either ObamaCare or federal "tort reform" laws, both of which would ignore the Founding Fathers and deprive Americans of our unalienable rights. The super committee should reject these blatant attempts by the AMA and its buddies, and instead seek real spending reductions in the federal deficit.

Posted by Andrew Cochran  at TPN on October 5, 2011 at 12:54pm