The Denver Insider's Blog

The Supreme Court voted 8-1 today to protect medical device manufacturers against lawsuits over the use of any medical device that has been approved by the FDA. This is a big win in the battle to reduce healthcare costs and to reform health care in general. No medical device (or drug, for that matter) is going to be perfect; the FDA makes decisions on a cost benefit analysis for all of society. Basically, the overall health benefits of a device should be great enough that it outweighs the negatives of the few times there are side-effects or the device does not work. Once the FDA has made this decision, medical devices are allowed into the market. When consumers are allowed to sue medical device manufacturers on an individual basis, this leads to huge judgments against manufacturers and increases the cost for everybody.

For example, Medical device XYZ is approved and helps save 10,000 lives. However, it is used by Joe Blow and doesn't work and causes him an injury of some sort. Joe Blow then sues and the jury of 12 lay-people awards a huge amount of money to Joe Blow without considering the number of lives that this device has saved. This adds a huge layer of new cost into our healthcare system and the lawyers get rich. This new Supreme Court decision eliminates this scenario. It will lower our healthcare costs and place a higher percentage of our healthcare dollars to patient care.

Why is this on the Denver Blog? Some members of Congress have already promised to pass legislation to reverse this decision. This is a ridiculous stance and we all need to contact our Representative and Senators to tell them to defeat any legislation that would reinstate the ability to have these types of lawsuits.

Contact Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar

Contact your Congressperson