I got this note from Jim in Texas:
Although not a resident of New Hampshire, I have a very good friend there that keeps me informed of what is going on there and the misinformation that is flowing throughout the country.
I am a resident of Texas and have been for the past 18 years. I am a transplant from the Midwest and it was one of the best moves I have ever made.
Texas is a wonderful state in which to live and work. There is no state income tax here and it is pro business thus pro growth. Texas today is ranked at the top of the country in job creation and currently has a budget surplus even without state income taxes.
Now I have been following, through my friend, the debate in New Hampshire over healthcare reform and it is become obvious to me that your Representatives are doing their best to distort the record of Texas and anyone else opposed to Obamacare.
I read the Shea-Porter comments regarding healthcare and particularly laughed when I heard that Tort reform wasn’t working in Texas. (Click here for audio of CSP’s remark) Obviously right out of the leftwing playbook, Shea-Porter is doing her best to carry Pelosi-Obama water but Shea-Porter like the President is playing loose with the facts.
There is no question that healthcare has to be reformed but you cannot have true healthcare reform without addressing tort reform along with all other issues.
Tort reform in TX was initiated in TX by GW Bush in 1995 and was amended in 2003 by Rick Perry. It capped malpractice claims which affected the amount of insurance a Doctor has to carry thus the cost to doctors. As a result the number of doctors in Texas increased by 57% since 2003 which improved healthcare and reduced medical complaints. Here are excerpts out of an article by Willaim Tate that ran last week at the American Thinker entitled Health care reform that actually works.
Tate links to an op-ed from the San Francisco Examiner:
"Changes were seen immediately, and continue to be felt. All major liability insurers cut their rates upon passage of our reforms, with most of those cuts ranging in the double-digits. More than 10 new insurance carriers entered the Texas market, increasing competition and further lowering costs.
"As a result, Texas doctors have seen their insurance rates decline by an average of 27 percent.
"The number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas has skyrocketed by 57 percent."
Then Tate writes,
At a time when a debate rages over whether the U.S. has enough doctors, Texas has seen its number of doctors leap by about 15,000. And Perry points out that tort reform has brought service to critically underserved, predominantly minority and poor communities.
"The number of obstetricians practicing in rural Texas is up by 27 percent, and 12 counties that previously had no obstetricians now have at least one. The statistics show major gains in fields like orthopedic surgery, pediatrics, neurosurgery and emergency medicine.
The Rio Grande Valley has seen an 18 percent growth in applications to practice medicine, adding about 200 doctors to this critically underserved area.
According to state Representative Joe Nixon, many of Texas’ news physicians have moved to rural or underserved areas, and
"Texas, once listed as 47th worst state in the ratio of doctors per citizen, will soon be in the lower 30s and improving."
Perry says Texas tort reform has had other benefits to patients:
"And what about the money that used to go to defending all those frivolous lawsuits? You can find it in budgets for upgraded equipment, expanded emergency rooms, patient safety programs and improved primary and charity care."
Further, according to the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, tort reform has resulted in an improvement in the quality of health care in Texas, with the percentage of complaints about medical care actually going down.
Yet, despite the striking evidence of tort reform benefits in the nation’s second most populous state, this simple, basic and essential component of health care reform is completely missing from all Democrat proposals.
According to opensecrets.org, Democrats received over $178,000,000 from lawyers’ donations during the 2008 election cycle — three times what they donated to Republicans. Over $43,000,000 of that went to the Obama campaign.
Forty-three million reasons why Obamacare doesn’t include the one component of health care reform that has been proven to work: tort reform.
William Tate is an award-winning journalist and author.
Now the people of New Hampshire can continue to buy the Obama rhetoric as spoken by your House Member Shea-Porter or they can get the facts about what is happening in Texas. The choice is clear
