[fabsroman]

Andy,

Good post, but of course I'm going to disagree with you about attorneys being the ONLY reason that health care costs have gone up. How about the drug companies spending $19 billion on advertising a couple of years ago? I don't know what the most recent numbers are, but I can guarantee you that I haven't seen any less commercials from the drug companies.

How about the sophistication of today's medicine. MRI, Cat Scans, X-Rays, brain surgery, etc. 100 years ago, if you got something like cancer you were SOL. Now, they can operate and do a million other things to try and save you. Guess what, those million things cost a bunch.

Yes, attorneys are approached by clients too often to sue over stupid stuff, but sometimes the lawsuits are actually for real. If something bad were to happen to you in a hospital because of a careless doctor or nurse, I'm sure you would want to be compensated too.

Now, I will admit that attorneys do drive up the cost of health care to a degree, but we aren't the only reason for it. I'm all for tort reform. Put a cap on pain and suffering and allow economic damages to the extent they are incurred. Plain and simple.