Oklahoma GOP - Are Caps Conservative?
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A story on wcbstv.com exemplifies the fallacy behind the Oklahoma GOP’s vain attempt to push tort reform more aptly named Civil Amnesty as it’s not reform but Amnesty for big business and big insurance in Oklahoma. Senator Coffee and his ilk want to limit non-economic damages which are sometimes called “pain and suffering damages” to $300,000.00 so they can save their insurance friends some money.
In the wcbstv article, it talks about what can only be described as a grievous example of medical negligence. The story begins with the following “She was a vibrant young mother who went to a Brooklyn hospital for what she thought was a kidney stone. She wound up leaving without her hands and feet because of what her lawyers call a "medical mistake." The 32-year-old suffered an infection and ended up a quadriplegic with impaired vision. Because of this hospital, this emergency room, with back pain and side pain, and she leaves here on a stretcher with no hands and feet and legally blind, said Sanford Rubenstein, Mullings' attorney.”
Now according to Senator Coffee and the Oklahoma GOP, the maximum amount of pain and suffering this quadriplegic, blind mother suffered is $300,000.00. Yep that’s right, $300,000. Even if you readers, who may be nurses, teachers, paper mill workers, welders, deacons, preachers et. al. determine that she deserved $1,000,000.00 in pain and suffering damages, Senator Coffee and the Oklahoma GOP would say that you were wrong in awarding what you did and allow the insurance company to only pay $300,000.00. I suppose they are just smarter than you Oklahomans.
Ask yourself is this truly conservative? Do conservatives really believe that government knows better than private citizens in deciding issues? Do conservatives really believe that government intervention is warranted to protect insurance companies? I think not and yes I’m a true conservative. There is a beautiful thing about our judicial system, it currently is non-partisan and non-special interest controlled. These so called conservatives now in power at the state capitol don’t want it that way. They want an activist judiciary changing the will of the people called to serve on a jury.