[ark_girl]

Do oncologists get sued left and right like OBGYN's do? I think that was what he was referring to. Talk to any doctor...obgyn's get nailed a lot with law suits. I know several people who have been GP's for a long time who have had to quit delivering babies because the liability is too high.

[Teacher317]

OB-GYN insurance rates are also far higher in many states.

(Not in my beloved Indiana, though!)

[pickrell]

"...Best Howard Dean moment: Democrats erupting in applause when the president began a sentence saying, "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security . . ."

This line, this scene, will stand alongside the Hindenburg disaster filmclip in years to come.

When Social Security begins its meltdown around 2015, the deliberate sabotage of the last chance to fix it will be the enduring final epitaph of the Democratic Party. It will stand in mute testament to a political party willing to watch the economic enslavement of their own grandchildren, and sneer that... no matter- they won.

But then, for creatures who care not how history revile them, I suppose it is one pathetic win for them.

[Enchante]

Yes, I believe the reason OB-GYN is the specialty most often raised in these discussions is because it has been hardest hit by practitioners leaving the field and too few entering. I have a doctor in the family (not OB-GYN) who has often mentioned the jury settlements for birth defect cases, etc. as among the most extreme of the torts and insurance problems for medicine, and the insurance rates for OB-GYNs often go through the roof in various states. fwiw, John Edwards made his fortune abusing the system to the hilt by winning multi-million dollar settlements in dubious to bogus claims against OB-GYNs.

[secret garden]

OB-GYN liability exists for their patients 21 years from their birth. No other speciality has that long a time frame for possible lawsuits. And their malpractice insurance costs are truly astronomical.

[centexan]

The OB-GYN that delivered our last child has stopped that part of his practice and is only doing GYN because of the increase in his malpractice insurance.

He is an awesome doc - my boy had the cord wrapped around his neck and he very calmly said, "we're going to deliver this kid in the next two minutes or we are going to the room next door and do a C-section. 90% of the doc's wouldn't have given us that choice. It's a shame he is out of that part of medicine - most of the other doc's would have been in the OR in a heartbeat and counting the $$$