Posted on 07/04/2004 2:15:18 PM PDT by wagglebee
Medical-Malpractice Battle Gets Personal: Some doctors refuse to treat attorneys
The last year I was in private practice, I wrote off an amount that was equal to 30 percent of my income...
Wonder if Moore did that?
However, I do hate HMO's...but if you hate HMO's, just look at the VA system, and imagine if the government took over all of medicine.
No, but fatboy probably spent about 30% of your income stuffing his face.
"award-winning?" Now THAT is misleading...
Winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival is probably a lot like being voted "best looking guy on the cell block", you're happy they like you, but not too sure what it means.
More power to Michael Moore -- finally attacking an institution that NEEDS to be attacked, rather than his last two targets (our President, and our right to keep and bear arms).
Our healthcare finance system is broken. It encourages overconsumption, discourages competition, and bankrupts those who try to be reponsible while leaving untouched the grossly irresponsible. By making it part of employment, and making small employers pay vastly more per employee, it greatly discourages entrepreneurship and makes it exceptionally difficult for small businesses to grow, all the while depriving insures and providers of incentives for programs which build up lifelong better health, since someone will likely have changed jobs (and insurers) before the benefits are shown.
Moore's answer (doubtless an ill-thought socialized medicine scheme) won't be right, but at least he'll be asking the questions loudly.
The real kicker is that if the company runs out of money in its self-insurance account, you as a patient aren't owed *anything.* You can run up a $600,000 bill, and guess what - you will pay it if the company no longer funds its self-insurance fund.
Usually this happens when a company goes bankrupt. Salaries and outstanding bills to creditors take priority; any medical expenses owed to employees goes by the wayside if there isn't any money anymore. We learned this personally from sad experience.
So yes, the American system really is broken, especially for people in their early fifties until Medicare kicks in.
Let him rock on...he ain't flying under the radar any longer; his ambush tactics might not work so well on his next little 'effort'.
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