Politicians and their Lawyer backers are seeking to raise Medical Malpractice premiums! Forget the 30% recover fees, politicians and lawyers want much more!

….And you thought lawmakers were elected to represent the people! Well...you got it wrong! Lawmakers (generally and more often these lawmakers are lawyers seeing they can’t find a real job, so they get elected to something) are legislating for themselves and their current and former law firms. The story below shows how these lawmakers are seeking to make more money off the backs of Doctors and Patients!

Lawyer pol bids for higher malpractice fees

• By CARL CAMPANILE
• NY Post
• Last Updated: 12:37 AM, March 21, 2011
• Posted: 12:37 AM, March 21, 2011

A powerful state senator who is a medical-malpractice attorney has sparked a furor by pushing a bill to boost trial lawyers' pay by eliminating 2-decade-old limits on legal fees in such cases.

Sen. John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse), chairman of the Finance Committee, is "of counsel" to the Syracuse medical-malpractice law firm DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.

And watchdog groups say his advocacy for an end to limits on contingency fees is a blatant conflict of interest, while health-care-industry officials claim giving more money to attorneys could dramatically increase malpractice-insurance premiums for medical providers and reduce payouts to patients.

"It's a conflict of interest for a lawyer to champion a bill that benefits his profession and his law firm," said Citizens Union President Dick Dadey.

The bill also undercuts Gov. Cuomo's bid to slash malpractice costs.

In response to medical-industry complaints about high malpractice premiums, Cuomo proposed a $250,000 cap on non-economic "pain and suffering" awards, to slash $700 million in costs.

In exchange, health-care providers and unions backed Cuomo's plan to trim Medicaid.

Current law caps fees for attorneys who earn a percentage of what their clients win. They're now paid on a sliding scale.

For example, lawyers can collect up to 30 percent on judgments of less than $250,000 but no more than 10 percent of awards of more than 1.25 million. DeFrancisco's bill would abolish those limits.

"This bill would drastically worsen hospitals' already oppressive medical-malpractice costs and threaten access to care. To enact it would be shameless," said Brian Conway, spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association.

DeFrancisco declined comment.