With reports that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, could be drastically altered or even repealed making headlines, it is fair to wonder, how would an Obamacare repeal impact medical malpractice damages?
Would an Obamacare Repeal Impact Medical Malpractice Damages?
The Legal Intelligencer featured a story regarding this scenario. The article focused on the practice of attorneys using ACA to limit their clients’ liability in medical malpractice lawsuits. Due to concerns that Congress could repeal Obamacare, lawyers attempting to use ACA to reduce a hospital or physician’s responsibility in a medical negligence case.
Per The Legal Intelligencer, for the third time in recent months, a federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked a hospital from using the Affordable Care Act to mitigate responsibility for negligence in a medical malpractice case. Following a decision in favor of the plaintiffs, the judge in the case did not allow the hospital to calculate future medical expenses using Obamacare as part of the equation.
In another similar case in that happened in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas in October the judge in the case rejected a hospital’s attempt to use Obamacare to reduce a plaintiff’s potential recovery.
Damages in medical malpractice cases are crucial because plaintiffs have often suffered lifelong injuries or lost a loved one. In many of these situations, the only way to bring negligent hospitals and physicians to justice is to hold them accountable financially.
In the video below, injury lawyer Nancy Winkler talks about the devastation that victims and families can endure because of a hospital or doctor’s negligence.
