The irony of John Edwards talking about helping the poor pay health costs

Charles Hurt points out one irony about Edwards' poverty tour and his arguments about bemoaning the high cost of health care. One of the causes of high health care costs are doctors passing along the costs of their liability insurance. And the costs are so high because of the fear doctors have of being sued for malpractice, something that trial lawyers like John Edwards have become rich from doing. In some areas, the cost for malpractice insurance for an obstetrician are three or four times the cost for a regular family practitioner. You think that such considerations don't affect decisions that doctors make about what field to specialize in or what states they want to practice in?

And so he stopped in the hinterlands of Wise, Va., to commiserate with the poor there who can't afford health care. Even if they could, they'd have to drive a hundred miles to find a doctor.

"We're here to help," Edwards assured them.

There are plenty of causes for this sad heath-care situation. But Edwards wasn't talking about one of the biggest causes - the cause he is among the most responsible for.

"The primary factor is liability insurance," said Dr. Stuart Weinstein, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Iowa. "It's either too expensive in areas like that or simply not available anymore."

Virginia's medical-liability insurance rates - driven largely by the very types of lawsuits that made Edwards a multimillionaire many times over - have more than doubled in three years, according to the nonpartisan Medical Liability Monitor.

In Edwards' home state, those premiums quadrupled. As a result, doctors have fled rural areas or quit practicing altogether.