Wake up America! Your rights are being destroyed in Congress!

I thought the election was about getting the Washington DC politicians and lobbyists out of the picture. Didn’t you think that the election put lobbyists in their place and shut down the political machines in DC? Well the same politicians and lobbyists are still there and they are passing new laws without even holding hearings to make sure regular citizens can’t hold corporations, doctors and hospitals accountable when they wrongfully cause harm. The Big Banks and Credit card companies are back to the same old tricks and now they are writing new laws to protect themselves from consumers and reap more huge profits. Those voters who thought they got a “revolution” in the election and are still celebrating will wake up one day and see that they have been played for fools. Sad but true. Those voters get a failing grade in civics. We need people to stand up to this power grab and stop it in its tracks. ”

Its the same gang in House who shut the government down a couple of years ago. That was just a fight between two political parties with no true principles behind the mud-slinging. It was just “nah-na-nah-na-nah-na”  back and forth like 5 year olds in the sandbox. But the election stopped all of that, right? Well now that same group is going to slam the courthouse doors shut for individuals who get cheated by their credit card company or injured by a defective drug or medical device. These politicians are gambling that the American public is so brain dead that people won’t know what’s going on until its too late.

The first Bill to pass the House, H.R. 985 – Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act didn’t even have a hearing! Snuck through under the cover of night, the politicians and lobbyists for the rich and powerful have been unleashed to grab as much money as possible for their benefactors while Americans sleep. And H. R. 1215 – Protecting Access to Care Act of 2017 destroys patients rights, will do nothing to increase patient care and is simply going to pad the pockets of Big Insurance and protect reckless doctors and bad hospitals at the expense of patients.

Joanne Doroshow a leading consumer advocate explains in Kimberly Kindy’s March 9, 2017 Washington Post article House GOP quietly advances key elements of tort reform:

“These bills, put together, would exonerate large corporations and the health-care industry for any kind of harm they may cause everyday people,” Doroshow said.

Doroshow and others said the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act would squelch most class-action lawsuits, which typically involve plaintiffs with a wide variety of similar complaints. It could sharply restrict membership in a class, for example, to women who had been sexually harassed in the same way by the same manager, they said.

That measure would also affect asbestos trusts, which distribute funds from legal settlements to victims of asbestos-related illnesses and injuries. The trusts would be required to publicly disclose the names, medical information and award amounts of victims, an attempt to cut down on fraudulent claims that opponents say would violate victims’ privacy rights.

Military veterans disproportionately suffer from asbestos-related illnesses and injuries, and many veterans groups are fighting the bill.

“Forcing our veterans to publicize their work histories, medical conditions, majority of their Social Security numbers, and information about their children and families is an offensive invasion of privacy to the men and women who have honorably served,” 18 veterans’ groups wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.

The fourth measure in the package has yet to be scheduled for a vote. The Protecting Access to Care Act would establish a three-year statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in most cases where patients and their families believe negligent health care caused injury or death.

The bill would also set a $250,000 cap on compensation for “noneconomic damages,” which are separate from damages plaintiffs receive based on future economic losses. Noneconomic damages are meant to compensate victims for pain and suffering, as well as permanent disfigurement or other serious disabilities that may not interfere with their ability to work.

First of all there is no evidence that there is any fraud by veterans who suffer from the dirge of mesothelioma from asbestos. As usual the corporate henchmen for the huge corporations and insurance companies that want this legislation will profit hugely by denying the veterans compensation for their losses. It is a pure sham by the mostly-Republican politicians to increase insurance company profits at the expense of people who are disabled and dying.

And as for the H. R. 1215 – Protecting Access to Care Act it is equally part of the Big Lie that the insurance industry and complicit members of Congress are telling the American public. They say that they are just correcting an out of balance system of too many lawsuits. The truth is that there are almost no lawsuits against bad doctors and hospitals. In fact there are over 250,000 deaths annually that are caused by avoidable errors in hospitals and by negligent doctors who fail to follow established rules of medicine. Most of those 250,000 families who have lost a loved-one can’t find a lawyer to file a lawsuit because of obstacles to filing suit imposed by the insurance industry. See “700 deaths per day: medical malpractice third leading cause of death in US” for more evidence of the falsity of statements made in Congress and to the press about this Bill, H. R.   The Bill would further protect negligent doctors from having to pay for their deficient treatment of patients.

There are 5 or 6 more bills in the pipeline. Destruction of the American system of justice is eminent. Don’t believe it when the spin doctors say there are too many lawsuits. Its a lie. They have never supported that with facts. We desperately need the journalists and media leaders to get the truth out. The facts are readily available.