Mesothelioma Attorneys Call to Action to Defend the Rights of the Injured
Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason send out this call to action to protect the rights of those who are injured, asking all concerned to express their opposition to H.R.5 Act of 2011. HR5, also known as the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act, is quite the opposite of what it proposes and would drastically reduce the rights of seriously injured patients.
HR5 is a measure that purports to “improve patient access to health care services and provide improved medical care by reducing the excessive burden the liability system places on the health care delivery system.” In actuality, it would impose caps on damages sought by those who have been seriously injured by not only medical negligence, but by intentional misconduct, defective drugs or medical devises, or who have suffered abuse in nursing homes.
In addition to severely limiting patient recourse both by preventing civil action against HMOS and Insurers and capping recoveries, the bill also preempts state law which up until now has been the authority to govern what rights and remedies its citizens should have against entities and individuals who harm them. The bill is being represented as “protecting doctors from frivolous lawsuits” but in fact does no such thing. Instead HR5 severely limits the rights of catastrophically injured people against the manufacturers of defective drugs and medical devices, negligent nursing home operators and bad faith insurers. Worse, it protects medical providers who commit intentional acts of abuse and sexual assault.
The attorneys at CPSM, a law firm that represents clients diagnosed with mesothelioma due to the manufacturers’ sale and use of defective products that led to asbestos exposure, vigilantly oppose large corporate interests repeated efforts to deny injured individuals access to the courts or to severely limit individual rights. This past May, Deborah Schweizer, one of the partners of CPSM, joined with about 50 other trial lawyers who traveled to Washington DC to meet with members of Congress and their staff to voice opposition to HR5, which is anticipated to reach the floor any time.
CPSM puts out this call to action to stop Congress from making this bill a law. To be clear, HR5 does not protect the rights of patients nor doctors. It merely puts blocks and obstacles in the way of patients who have been seriously injured, protecting those that have harmed people through negligence, intentional misconduct and defective drugs or devices. To help prevent this from becoming law, send a message to Congress telling them to protect the rights of patients and stop HR5.
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