March 01, 2005

Senator Arlen Specter has a column in today's Washington Times on the asbestos bill being considered by his Judiciary Committee. It looks like he's working toward a $140 billion trust fund, with a workers' compensation-type schedule for payouts for various ailments--with the courts opening back up should the fund be exhausted. I'm not sure that in such a form the bill will get the necessary business support, but we'll see. In any event, the devil will be in the details of how claims are to be processed and what medical standards will be used (see my post on "Fen-Phen Follies" below to see how a misconceived plan can go terribly awry).