[Neoliberalnot]

More contemptible extortion from the judges, lawyers, and juries. Perhaps people may begin to understand why healthcare costs just keep going higher. What do you suppose was the take for the plaintiffs lawyer? Of course, since lawyers are now running healthcare, I bet they made more than the standard $400/hour.

[Savage Beast]

Affordable Health Care will never be a reality until unlimited malpractice lawsuits are eliminated from the costs.

[buckalfa]

Malpractice insurance costs and frivolous litigation are one of the drivers of high healthcare costs. Yet having worked in the medical business, there needs to be a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of hospitals and doctors to prevent rampant butchery. Now only if something could be done about lawyers.

[sagar]

A miniscule rate of medical docs cause harm inadvertantly. 100% of abortion docs cause death 100% of the time.

[Rockingham]

Due to restrictive federal court procedural rules, such a large personal injury verdict is unusual, which suggests that the facts of the case were especially strong against the doctor and hospital and that the defendants and their counsel botched the case. If genuinely excessive, the verdict is nevertheless likely to be reduced via post trial motions or on appeal.

Notably, total medical liability costs in the US medical system are reliably estimated to be about 2.4 per cent of total spending, or 55 billion dollars annually. While a not inconsiderable sum, that is not a crippling burden in relative terms, and at least some if not most of that cost is justified by the need to compensate for damage due to malpractice.

Well-chosen medical malpractice reforms may be merited, but they will do little to reduce the cost of health care. Moreover, malpractice remains a problem, and many doctors are still resistant to measures proven to reduce error, like check lists, greater collaboration among care givers, better communication with patients, and routine internal reviews meant to detect and remedy medical errors.

[ilovesarah2012]

I urge you to read the entire article.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article147506019.html

[Graybeard58]

Of course, since lawyers are now running healthcare, I bet they made more than the standard $400/hour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

$400 per hour would be a cheap lawyer.