My new pal David Held has sent me a story about New Jersey's proposal to handle pain and suffering damages.

Free form association leads to these thoughts:

(1) One assumes that doctors, who have to pay high premiums, have passed that cost to their patients by charging more for their services. Imposition of liability caps will not cause the doctors to lower their rates, based on doctors in states that have enacted liability caps.

(2) States that have caps have not seen a reduction in the premiums for malpractice insurance. Their argument is that in those "capped" states, the premium has not risen as dramatically as in those states without caps. Thus, imposition of caps will not cause a premium reduction, and in fact malpractice insurance premiums likely will continue to increase. All while the numbers of cases are remaining flat, and not increasing.

(3) Why are we considering caps on liability as to this type of negligence action, where there are no caps as to any other type of negligence litigation?

(4) why don't the doctors worry more about being better doctors and policing themselves to get rid of bad doctors, rather than look for a way to avoid responsibility for their negligence? The rest of us must take responsibility for our acts. Lawyers can and are sued for malpractice, and hit with big verdicts. Why are the doctors so special?

(5) Why are the doctors acting as shills for Big Insurance, rather than raising hell with the insurance industry for premium increases that have no basis in published data. And,

(6) Why won't Big Insurance release raw data, so that watchdog organizations can analyze Big Insurance actions that smack of price-fixing, improper investment strategies, and arbitrary premium increases.

Just wondering....