Posted on 10/08/2004 11:52:49 PM PDT by schouston
During debate rebuttal, Kerry pointed out that large (often frivilous) medical malpractice suits account for less than 1% of total medical costs. I believe he is correct.
I think however, he seperates the additional insurance costs adding to spiralling premiums for docs and patients alike.
Can someone smarter than me research this and get back to us. It's a significant argument for the upcoming domestic debate and should be gone over thouroughly.
Jeez I can't spell. I'm an OGB-YN
Did anyone notice how during these comments on the health care issue President Bush called Kerry Sen. Kennedy ?
I don't know if it was an intentional mistake or a subtle message. To me Kerry is just an agent for Kennedy and his agendas . Kennedy has long pulled Kerry's strings .
Thank you Mr. Bush for reminding us!
The "Sen. Kennedy" gaff will put Kerry's remarks in the press hundreds of times !
During debate rebuttal, Kerry pointed out that large (often frivilous) medical malpractice suits account for less than 1% of total medical costs. I believe he is correct.
So, if, and I don't know the figure, total medical costs are 600 billion dollars that means that malpractice suits account for 6 billion dollars. Is this acceptable? I really do not think so.
For doctors like GYN's that is an issue and John Edwards make his millions suing doctors for delivery problems causing children to have Cerebral Palsy -- blamed on birthing problems and not totally proven by the way -- so two things happen: More cesarian sections (much more expensive) and higher malpractice premiums to the point the doctors can't afford to stay in practice.
Some states, like California, have limited medical liablity. That has cut down on personal injury accident claims and it limits a lot of the deep pocket claims. Other states, like Nevada, were losing emergency room doctors to the point they shut down the trauma unit at UNLV. Finally they worked out some limited measure to keep doctors in the state and working and re-opened the unit -- which by the way covers not only Las Vegas, but areas hundreds of miles around, including where I live here in Arizona.
Insurance Premiums and their huge increase are more a result of hospitals having to treat so many uninsured people -- many, many of whom are illegal aliens; and of course no one talks about the huge salaries CEO's are making at the insurance companies -- while at the same time outsourcing the claims processing to India, Jamaica, etc... along with trying every trick in the book NOT to pay claims in a timely manner.
What I would LOVE is a congressional investigation into the escalating cost of insurance premiums. How much is caused from poor investments made by these insurance carriers that are being charged back to us in premiums and were not of our or our doctor's making?
The media contributes to much of this nonsense. Dateline has brought up myth after myth. How powerlines cause cancer. Not proven. Cell phones can cause cancer or set off an explosion at a gas station. Ridiculous and not proven. Way back - the lead in venetian blinds can kill babies. Yeah, if the baby ate the entire blind, maybe. One would think the media is trying to make people fear. We fear everything. Our forefathers would think we are real wimps.
Large suits aren't the point. One $10,000,000 lawsuit doesn't affect insurance rates as much as a hundred $250,000 lawsuits or a thousand $50,000 settlements do. Moreover, this doesn't account for the cost of previously unnecessary procedures and tests that doctors now conduct in order to avoid malpractice claims.
For instance, because of the cerebral palsy lawsuits brought against "OG-BYNs" by the Silky Pony (among others), the rate of Caesarean sections has skyrocketed. A C-section costs more than a normal birth, plus it runs the risk of complications to the mother that will cost much more than a normal birth.
The best demonstration of this effect is in Medicare costs. Theoretically, Medicare costs should be the same everywhere—Medicare doctors perform the same procedures from state to state, on patients who share the same general set of ailments. But Medicare costs vary widely, even after you control for the cost of living. Control for the cost of malpractice insurance, and Medicare costs still vary. But compare them to malpractice awards and there's a strong correlation, even though (since the awards are paid by the insurance companies) the cost of those awards should already be factored into the cost of the insurance. What's happening is that in the states with high malpractice awards, Medicare doctors are performing extra tests in order to avoid lawsuits.
Actually the best diet is more in line with Dr. Sears' Zone Diet. If you ever read the forward to his first book he explained how he came to this way of eating -- everyone in his family died of heart disease really young and he as a scientist set out to figure this out... low and behold -- too many carbs overloads the pancreas and releases all these hormones into our bodies -- etc... anyway, his diet is sensible and balanced and works.
Also people need to stay away from trans-fats, but they do need fat, because eating fat releases fats from the gallbladder. Many people screwed up their metabolisms on the low fat diet and ended up with gallbladder and/or pancreas problems.
It's sort of the same as why so many dogs and cats are so fat. Too many carbs. In the case of dogs they can't properly digest carbs and they turn to sugar and sugar turns to fat.
My wife struggles with weight. She eats half of what I do and exercises much more. I am getting more convinced that genes are at least half the problem. She's got those portly German genes working against her.
Personally I gave up trying to understand this stuff. I like food and I'm going to eat whatever I want, dang it. I know that's easy for me to say, but not so easy for others who only need to look at food to gain weight.
I've seen estimates that medical malpractice litigation accounts for anywhere from .2-10% of health care costs. When total U.S. health care expenditures exceed $1.7 trillion annually, you can see why this is such a serious problem. The low estimates are strictly based on payouts from doctors and insurance companies when they lose a med mal case. The high estimates take into account unneccessary tests and procedures that physicians only order to cover their ass, as well as all the costs of defending the lawsuits. If the President can get his tort reform bill passed, then I don't think it would be unreasonable for health insurance rates to drop 5-10% in the long run.
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