Posted on 02/13/2004 9:05:21 AM PST by Temple Owl
Editorial
Second Thoughts
By: William W. Lawrence 02/10/2004
My son and I attended an educational symposium, Feb. 3, concerning the crisis in medical care in Pennsylvania. And it is a crisis.
It was projected that there will be huge shortages in some specialties -- an estimated 80 percent for urologists by 2020 -- due to an aging population, an unwillingness for doctors to settle in Pennsylvania and an educational system unable to graduate enough students to handle "the rigors of medical school."
An out-of-control tort system got most of the blame for our state being doctor unfriendly, but the insurance companies did not escape the doctors' wrath.
Riddle Memorial Hospital cardiologist C. Richard Schott called them "monopsonies" in which one or two buyers can impose prices on sellers that an open market would prevent. This keeps doctors from shopping for good rates and services.
Few insurance companies will do business in Pennsylvania because of the uncontrolled lawsuit environment.
* * *
It was revealed that Mercy Haverford Hospital's malpractice insurance rates rose $10 million the year it went under. Not many institutions can survive an unexpected $10 million increase in expenses.
Caps on non-economic damages must be instituted and we can't wait for a constitutional amendment. The judges on our Supreme Court must listen to reason. If they fail to do so, our legislators must impeach them.
It's really gotten down to that. Are you reading this, Ted Erickson? The time for being a nice guy has ended.
* * *
The event was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the doctors seemed disorganized about their political agenda. While it seemed that most were endorsing Congressman Pat Toomey in the April 27 GOP Primary for U.S. Senate, the Montgomery County panelist was pulling for incumbent Arlen Specter. Specter's son, Shanin, is a trial lawyer with a reputation for suing doctors.
Attorneys at the law firm he heads, Kline & Specter, have contributed $36,000 to Democratic presidential contender John Edwards over the last two years. Edwards is a former trial lawyer who has received big money from other attorneys. They contributed no money to Republicans.
Shanin's website boasts of huge wins. These include a $49.6 million verdict that is described as "the then largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history."
Shanin is an acorn that did not fall far from the tree.
***
Sen. Specter, by the way, has been named Porker of the Year 2003 by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). The watchdog organization said Specter finished first with 51 percent of the vote in an online poll, outdistancing his competitors by a 2-to-1 margin.
Please vote for Pat Toomey.
***
Surgeon James Tayoun Jr. -- the son of the former Philadelphia Councilman (and my old Daily News colleague) -- announced at the symposium he was seeking the state Senate seat held by Vince Fumo in the Democratic primary. Tayoun Jr. heads the Politically Active Physicians Association. He has endorsed Toomey.
Good luck, Jimmy.
* * *
How about all of the uproar vis-à-vis the one-second flashing of Janet Jackson's right breast. That hue and cry should have come about eight years ago when we had a pervert as a national role model. Hey, better late than never.
(Excerpt) Read more at countypressonline.com ...
There are a lot of stupid voters in Pa. There are also a lot of old union Dems who may be socially conservative but won't vote Republican no matter what.
There are people upstate who think Rendell is a conservative.
In Florida, some hospitals are allowing their docs to "go bare" because the alternative is to run hospitals without docs. This puts a horrible burden on hospitals. Everyone looks at hospitalization bills and calls them "doctor bills"--the main drive to your increase in health cost is not the cost of the doc, it's the cost of the infrastructure of the hospitalization--that vast plant of equipment, technicians, maintenance, and administration. If I could get insurance where I paid my doc out of pocket and had my hospitalization "free"--I'd be a very, very happy patient.
Penn is an interesting place because traditional crime thuggery has long joined forced with the trial bar--only mass resignations could change this. The citizens love their bandits more than their docs and hospitals.
No court action would follow. It is not actionable, yet, for a doc to just quit.
Unless the doctors are old enough and have enough money saved up to retire, the doctors don't "just quit".
They simply find a state where trial lawyers are not out of control, they say good-bye to their neighbors and colleagues, they call up Mayflower Transit and they move out of Pennsylvania, never to return.
There's not a damn thing a Philadelphia lawyer can do about that.
This just in! Last week we revealed that Howard Dean stiffed the Brown Bag Deli in West Des Moines, Iowa for $963. The good news is that Dean has now paid the bill. The appreciative deli owner has named a bologna and cheese sandwich after the "I Had A Scream" candidate.
If I had the answer, I*'m sure i'd be rich. But it's not just in Pennsylvania. Look what Massachusetts keeps sending back to Washington.
We need term limits.
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