My newest column at American Issues Project is live, and it asks a very good question. If Democrats are really serious about improving our health care system, then why isn’t tort reform included in the Baucus bill?

Edwards himself was a notorious trial lawyer. His “specialty” was children with cerebral palsy. Using junk science and sleazy tactics, he tried over 60 malpractice cases and won over $1 million in half of those cases. According to Edwards, doctors ignored fetal heart monitors saying that the baby needed more air, and should have performed emergency cesarean surgeries. While there are ways to try to prevent cerebral palsy, United Cerebral Palsy doesn’t list Edwards birthing methods as one of them. And over the last thirty years, cerebral palsy rates have stayed the same, despite the fact that we have better fetal monitoring and more C-Sections performed. A Swedish report actually found that C-Sections increased the risk of cerebral palsy by 80%.

But of course, that didn’t stop him from using the junk science at trials to weasel money out of doctors who likely did absolutely nothing wrong. Edwards would actually pretend that the wronged child would speak through him at child, as if he was channeling them. This tactic, while sleazy and cheap, was successful. And thanks to Edwards and trial lawyers like him, doctors have suffered. From skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums to being forced to practice defensive medicine (such as the aptly named “when it doubt, cut it out” birthing method), the overly aggressive litigious atmosphere isn’t helping anyone — not doctors and not patients.

There are surely patients who are victims of malpractice, and there are trial lawyers who are fighting for those true victims. But the majority of them are trial lawyers like John Edwards, just looking to exploit doctors to make a quick buck. And right now, there is literally nothing doctors can do about it unless some kind of tort reform is passed.

This column also examines just how much damage predatory lawsuits are doing to the medical industry, as well as how much money we stand to save each year (hint: it’s in the bilions) if tort reform was passed. Be sure to read the whole thing.