On June 24, 2011, CQ's HealthBeat News reports on recent statements by Obama Administration OMB head Peter Orszag. Orszag left the Administration and now is a VP at Citibank and has published a new article in Foreign Affairs magazine about ObamaCare.

In the article he suggests that the "biggest substantive shortcoming" of ObamaCare was its lack of medical liability reform. Orszag suggests that med-mal reform should have taken the form of providing "safe harbor for doctors who follow evidence-based guidelines" in treating patients.  This of course ignores the reality of medical practice. Guidelines are just that - guidelines.  In some cases, they may be the best course of action and in other cases not.  To suggest that doctors follow a bureaucratically developed timeline and course of treatment as the only way to avoid a malpractice claim would not serve patients well.  Once again, Orszag gets its wrong.

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