Government Lies in Texas
Governor Perry has posted his own response and claimed justification for vetoing HB3281 (the bill discussed on my July 14, 2007 post). Specifically, Governor Perry states: “This bill would permit an individual in a personal injury lawsuit (other than a medical malpractice claim) to recover more money for medical expenses than actually was or will be paid.” Governor Perry further argues that allowing Injured Victims to submit the full amount of their medical bills to the jury, when they may have obtained a small reduction of the total bills through their privately purchased health insurance, would be misleading to the jury. This might seem like a somewhat reasonable justification at first glance. Unfortunately, Governor Perry is simply not telling the truth. The Governor’s response misleads the Texas citizens when he claims that the bill which he vetoed would allow Injured Victims to recover more money than they actually paid in medical expenses — in reality, Injured Victims are not now, nor have they ever been, able to seek full recovery of the medical expenses that were actually paid! Injured Victims have never been able to ask the jury to make the Defendant (the drunk driver in our previous post) reimburse the Injured Victim for the health insurance premiums (which are clearly a part of the Injured Victim’s “medical expenses”) that the Injured Victim has had to pay in order to receive health care. Moreover, the Governor’s response does not discuss the fact that Attorneys and Judges are required by Texas law to pretend to the jury that insurance is not involved in a typical lawsuit.
In a typical car wreck case, the Injured Victim’s attorney has to sue the individual driver of the other car (the drunk driver in our example from the previous post), even though the defendant/drunk driver’s insurance company is actually hiring the attorney, making all of the decisions for defending the case, and making the decision as to whether to settle the case without a trial. The justification for this is that Insurance Companies believe that the jury will award less money if they think that the defendant/drunk driver does not have insurance and will have to pay the judgment out of his own pocket; therefore, the Insurance Companies have convinced our government not to allow the Injured Victim or his/her attorney to mention Insurance during the trial. In fact, in many cases, if the word “insurance” is mentioned by the Injured Victim or his/her attorney, then a mistrial is called and the whole trial has to be restarted with a new jury! What Governor Perry’s posted response fails to tell the Texas citizens is this:
- Texas law does not allow an Injured Victim who brings suit to tell the jury that he/she will have to repay his/her health insurance company back in full from any amount of money that the jury awards;
- The Judge, Attorneys, Plaintiff, Defendant, and all witnesses involved are required by law to protect the Insurance Companies by pretending to the Jury that Insurance is not involved in any aspect of the Injured Victim’s case;
- The law does not allow the Injured Victim to recover any portion of the health insurance premiums that he/she has paid for months or even years in order to maintain his/her health insurance. In fact, not only can the health insurance premiums not be recovered from the defendant/drunk driver and/or his auto insurance company, but the law allows the health insurance company to both (1) take back any money that it has paid for the Injured Victim’s health care and (2) keep the thousands of dollars in insurance premiums that the Injured Victim has paid for the health insurance! Talk about your double dipping!
- The Injured Victim is not even allowed to tell the jury that he/she has had to pay insurance premiums for his/her health insurance (much less how many thousands of dollars those premiums have totaled).
In conclusion, our Governor has succumbed to the influences of the Insurance Companies at the expense of the (dwindling) rights of the Texas citizens. June 15, 2007 (the date of Governor Perry’s veto) was a terribly sad day for Texas citizens.
