Disclosure: I'm proud to be working with the American Association for Justice to protect patients' rights.

With the passage of Health Care Reform in the House, the stakes are rising by the day. As we saw this weekend with the adoption of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, changes to the bill can be made with blinding speed and millions of Americans can lose out in hours.

Thanks to a well-funded and decades long campaign by the insurance companies, "tort reform" -- the systematic denial of fundamental legal rights to patients harmed by medical negligence -- always looms when a heavily lobbied Congress talks about health care.

As Joanne Doroshow wrote on Huffington Post:

If you listened to the rants and harangues of those trying to kill the House health care bill on Saturday, you couldn't miss the endless blathering about tort reform, a term that almost no one really understands unless you happen to be a victim of medical malpractice or corporate wrongdoing. And then, you know.

Tort "reform" is a doozy of a misnomer. There is certainly nothing positive or beneficial about it. Tort reform laws, which now exist it nearly every state (although you'd never guess that after listening to those complaining how much we need it), make it more difficult for average people who have been injured, assaulted, or harmed in any way, to sue those responsible. The tort reform movement was created and funded by insurance companies, manufacturers of dangerous products, the tobacco industry, the medical profession, and other industries and professions. This movement is backed by enormous sums of money funneled primarily into conservative "think-tanks," public relations, polling and lobbying firms. Tort reforms always hurt patients, consumers and average people. They are also extremely dangerous for the rest of us.

The video at the top of this post is part of an effort to tell the stories of the real people whose lives are devastated by medical malpractice and "tort reform". Learn more at 98,000Reasons.org.