The preliminary PDF copy of the May 14, 2008 House Oversight Committee hearing, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA) is now available online. [We've now received the higher-res, editable, video feed, here, Rep. Waxman [and kind tech-staffers! THANK-YOU EVER SO MUCH!!!]. Hint. Hint. A low-res, dodgy-connection realmedia feed in a new window from CSPAN.org has been available for a while now.] I found Mr. Quaid's analogy, here, offered a common-sense framework for assessing the issue [emphasis supplied]:
HEARING ON: SHOULD FDA DRUG AND
MEDICAL DEVICE REGULATION BAR
STATE LIABILITY CLAIMS?
[Preliminary Transcript]
Wednesday, May 14, 2008,
House of Representatives,
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform
Washington, D.C.
. . . .Mr. QUAID. Yes, sir. Also, to answer Mr. Souder as far as the makeup of the panel, I, myself, have considered myself to be a Republican most of my life, but I am on the other side of this issue.
Mr. TIERNEY. That may not be conservative enough for Mr. Souder. You may want to talk about that. . . [Loud laughter.]
. . . .Mr. MCHENRY. Because I think beyond this issue I think medical errors and making sure hospitals and the medical industry updates in terms of technology, I think a lot of us can work together.
Mr. QUAID. This is doable.
Mr. MCHENRY. Yes.
Mr. QUAID. This is something that would actually wind up saving the American public money. This is something that eventually I think the insurance companies, themselves, would welcome because it would lower their liability, because fewer mistakes would be made.
I relate it to the airline industry, one of our safest[industries]. Why is it so safe? It is because every time there is a crash the NTSB goes out and they find out the exact cause of that crash, and usually always whether it is design, or pilot [error] or whether -- it comes down to human error somewhere along the way, and they minimize the impact of human error in aviation, to where it is the safest form of travel, today.
But if you relate it to what is going on with how many patients die needlessly every year because of medical mistakes, it is 100,000 patients. That is the equivalent of one major airline crash A DAY, every single day of EVERY YEAR, in America alone. But because it happens over such a broad, disconnected area, the public isn't really aware of it, but it is something that if people were realIy aware of, we would not tolerate.
Mr. MCHENRY. Thank you, sir.
Mr. QUAID. Thank you. . .
I'll have much more, from this hearing transcript shortly -- but I wanted to rush this bit right out.
UPDATED: Low-res -- but Dennis Quaid's 30 second video clip:
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