re: Those damn trial lawyers, and malpractice insurance...

It seems likely that the Bush administration's next attempt at smoke & mirrors will be to start hammering on malpractice tort reform. In a preemptive strike, let me provide a link to a detailed survey of the truth of the matter. Basically, the problem is emphatically NOT "frivolous lawsuits", but rather the fact that the medical profession contains no functioning mechanism to weed out bad doctors. Tangentially, insurance companies are both dumb (bad investment strategies) and evil (gouging). But the lack of weed-out capability is the biggest problem, as this forces insurance companies to treat the medical profession as *unpredictable* - the worst thing in the world to an insurer. The problem is very similar in structure to those within the police community and the K-12 education community.

But without further ado, the report, "Medical Misdiagnosis: Challenging The Malpractice Claims...":

Public Citizen's report

The report also contains a large number of excellent "talking points", fit for use against Republicans and other mean-spirited idiots who want to remove the public's right to seek redress for harm.