One health care proposal that I like can be traced back to Milton Friedman. Essentially, the government would provide high-deductable health insurance to everyone. I forget what sort of number he proposed, but it would be in the ballpark of $2000 or more. This would do two good things. One, it would protect families that required very expensive procedures from bankruptcy. Two, it would free insurance companies from having to pay for very expensive operations. This would reduce their claim costs, and make private insurance cheaper for everyone. True, every taxpayer would have to pay for the government insurance, but it's a good compromise that keeps the sytem private, and still makes the system better.
Tort reform is a very touchy subject for me. Frivolous lawsuits are very VERY easy to bash. By taking a more cautious attitude towards tort reform, I risk being unfairly accused of supporting frivolous lawsuits, or whiny victims who want a free ride and mess it up for everyone. But, that's a risk I'm willing to take. This is the tfp after all.
So, all that said, I think tort reform on the whole is a misguided idea, and that the current rhetoric and attitudes towards lawsuits neglect some of the good reasons for having civil law. First, it allows victims to have a recourse. If someone or some group wrongfully harms you, you can be compensated. By the same token, the public enjoys a lot of protections because corporations try to avoid situations that result in lawsuits. These are positive things that must be kept in the system under any tort reform scheme.
I think that making the victims pay all the costs, including the legal expenses of the defendants, is not a good idea. This would deter working class people from filing legitimate suits, and wouldn't stop frivilous ones.
The point of tort reform is that lawsuits are the cause of high malpractice insurance. However, there are other reasons. One is that the insurance companies have poorly managed their money. Another is that bad doctors aren't removed from practice. The old-boy network protects bad doctors, and harms the public. I don't know about you, but I can't think of a single instance of a doctor in my city getting bankrupted by a massive lawsuit. Sure, they complain about malpractice insurance, but I don't think lawsuits are the biggest cause of those increases.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...40307049.shtml
That's an editorial I found that opposes tort reform. I kinda skimmed through it, but other arguments might as well get out there.
So, my solution is the thing I talked about earlier, and perhaps some minor, cautious tort reform. I don't think the system is pefect, but I don't necessarily think it's broken either. Oh, and give bad doctors the punishment they deserve.