Doctors squeezed; hospitals get fatter

Springfield News-Leader ^ | 12/09/03 | Craig Luna

[Holly_P]

I am an independent insurance agent, specializing in professional liability insurance. My 14 years of experience and research have led me to form the following opinions.

For the past 12 years, malpractice premiums have remained at or below the premium levels charged in 1990. In the past 12 months, the malpractice premiums have doubled. The Missouri Department of Insurance has allowed some medical malpractice providers to market their insurance policies to physicians at rates that were not actuarially sound. Most of these "low cost" companies went bankrupt, others left the state.

[2banana]

where is all the money going?

That is an easy one to answer - Trail Lawyers

[IncPen]

ping

[glorgau]

Craig needs an editor.

[Savage Beast]

The American health care system is in crisis--similar to the California economic crisis. No one can afford health care. No one can pay out of pocket for a prolonged stay in an ICU or any prolonged hospitalization. A catastrophic illness could destroy anyone financially.

The system is broken, and it cannot be fixed until the problem of malpractice is fixed.

[BartMan1]

The fact that she repeats the story is proof of her self absorption.

[ArGee]

Trail Lawyers

So if all the lawyers would hit the trail the system would be fixed? ;)

Shalom.

[ArGee]

The system is broken, and it cannot be fixed until the problem of malpractice is fixed.

The system can not be fixed unless and until health care is put into the free market.

Let me buy my own health insurance and choose my own doctor. Let me pay my doctor and my insurance company reimburse me. Let my doctor choose his hospital and his own insurance policies.

And let some enterprising person or the state create a doctor rating Web site where the doctor's malpractice or bad practice or anything else becomes public information so I can make an informed decision.

Shalom.

[2banana]

Trails in America are getting out of control. Why just yesterday I was walking down one and tripped over a rock. I called my trial lawyer as soon as I got up because there was no warning on the rock or the trail...

[BartMan1]

Sorry, wrong thread...

[Savage Beast]

It won't work. As long as unlimited malpractice awards are possible, insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers cannot predict liability, and the entire health care system pays for this. It's like have a huge blank check hanging over the health care system, and you and I are required to pay, regardless of what amount is to be filled out on the check. The cost is unpredictable and enormous, and it overwhelms the system.

Unless and until this problem is solved, health care will remain unaffordable for everyone.

This is not an admonition. It is an observation and a prediction.

[Savage Beast]

If health care is put into the free market, without solving the problem of malpractice awards, insurance costs and defensive medical practices will continue to escalate and so, consequently, will health care costs, which you and I will have to pay.

Doctor ratings help some, but not enough to matter, because insurance companies and everyone else know that one slip-up, by the doctor with the purest record, could result in catastrophic malpractice payments.

If the government should take over the health care system, this conundrum will still exist. Government may cap awards. If the government indemnifies hospitals, doctors, etc., the system will still be unaffordable, and taxes will have to be raised time after time until the taxpayers revolt, as they did recently in California.

I'm not saying how to fix this problem. I am saying that unless it is fixed, the health care system cannot be fixed, and health care will remain unaffordable.

[FITZ]

It seems to me that lawsuits should be limited to clear-cut malpractice. Negligence does exist ---- doctors will do the wrong surgery on the wrong person ---- some mistakes should never happen ---- but some malpractice lawsuits happen in such difficult circumstances ---- such as certain cancers where the doctor might advise a "wait & see" approach for very good reasons which then turns out bad and then is sued ---- or the doctor advises cutting out a suspicious looking part to avoid that and it turns out negative and then is sued.

[Big Horn]

I have not seen a lawyer save a life.
The problems with the cost of medical are:
1. The Gov in the medical business ( Medicare and Medicaid)
2. The paper work required by the hospitals and Doctors
3. All the new privacy bs partly caused by aids
4. Greedy trial lawyers

[Savage Beast]

I'm just saying that the present system is not working and is not going to work and that it has also not prevented mistakes.

It's possible that doctors would be less likely to make mistakes if they were completely focused on patient care and not worrying about the lawyers looking over their shoulders and the endless regulations and paperwork.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Add to your list millions of illegals getting a free ride-"supply demand," raising prices!

[FITZ]

I'm for liability limits in lawsuits ---- to a point --- but if a doctor cuts off your leg when you were supposed to just get a biopsy done ---- maybe the award shouldn't be too minor. Some negligence is clear cut and obvious but some isn't.

[Big Horn]

You are absolutely right on the illegals and we should add deadbeats that don't pay.

[Bob J]

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[Cacique]

bttfl