It just keeps getting better...

Joseph Nixon:

The mad dash to jam through a government takeover of America’s health-care system has led to some pretty blatant and noxious payoffs, even by congressional standards.

At least two Senators exchanged their votes for immunity from additional Medicaid costs — but just for their own states. Another yet-to-be-identified senator is getting $100 million for a new hospital in his state.

But few groups make out better under the congressional leadership’s health-care plans than personal-injury trial lawyers. In reading the health-care bill approved by the House of Representatives and Harry Reid’s bill pending in the Senate, I find (so far) 26 new opportunities for plaintiff lawyers to sue doctors for malpractice.

...

What should be a debate of how best to strengthen the doctor/patient relationship has devolved into a raw exercise of political power, taking place almost exclusively behind closed doors or in the middle of the night. Instead of serving the public, this legislation serves the politicians and their benefactors — with plaintiff lawyers near the top of the list.