[Harrius Magnus]

As goes medicine, so goes America.

[pierrem15]

So physicians will simply refuse to treat smokers.

Problem solved. /s

[dblshot]

How long before a doctor can have you committed for failing to following sane guidelines for living? Or will you just be refused medical care as an incorrigible smoker.

[SueRae]

Such idiocy.

I chose to smoke. I also chose to quit. Took many attempts but it havs been almost 3 years. There are no victims, much as these litigators would like us to believe.

Is there nothing that people take responsibility for anymore? (don’t answer that ;-)

[susannah59]

Ridiculous.

Malpractice is malpractice, but a patient’s failure to do what would be good for himself or herself is not malpractice.

Anybody with the mental capacity to light a cigarette should know by now that it’s not good for you.

Can you imagine what this would do to already ridiculously high malpractice insurance rates???

[MEGoody]

. . .or the hundreds of thousands more who suffer heart attacks, strokes, amputations, blindness, or other problems. . .

Amputations and blindness? Gee, the list of medical conditions supposedly caused by smoking keeps growing. Frankly, I think it has become the politically correct thing to do to blame any medical condition on smoking if the individual smokes.

[Matchett-PI]

If someone else pays for your healthcare, he has the right to tell you what to do. He gets to DECIDE FOR YOU what is unhealthy behavior - like eating “too much”, eating the “wrong” things, raising your children in an “unhealthy” manner, driving without a seatbelt, riding a bike without a helmet, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

The numbnutz are getting exactly what they’ve been asking for, and since they’re in the majority, they’re causing the rest of us to lose our freedoms, too.

[Harrius Magnus]

Ping

[MrBlueSky2005]

The families of any one of those 40,000 victims...

Victims?! Who knew that those evil docs were forcing these poor souls to smoke...and of course none of them could possibly know the health risks unless their doctor badgered them every visit...

[Gabz]

Nanny State PING...........

[Gabz]

Banzhaf is the type of lawyer that gives the profession it’s bad name.

He makes John Edwards look like a saint.

[Lexington Green]

NEVER TELL A DOCTOR THAT YOU SMOKE

[maine-iac7]

What about warning doctors that if they continue to addict America with dangerous drugs, at the behest of the pharmaceutical companies, they will loose their license?

The side effects of these drugs - which seem to be even worse during withdrawal - are dangerous not only to the person but all around them.

Virtually all the school shooters were on or withdrawing from these drugs. That little bit of information comes out in the initial report and then is quickly censored and the “EVIL GUNS” politics start in.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/16/usgunviolence.usa

Look at this site and scroll down to “Psychiatric Disorders (Mental and emotional)”

http://www.theroadback.org/lexapro_side_effects.htm

Even on the official site for this one drug, read the “Important Safety Information”

http://www.lexapro.com/default.aspx?WT.srch=1&PlacementGUID=DDCB23D1-3F8E-4A69-9EE9-053F356E0406

Our doctors have become legal pushers for the pharmaceutical companies... The FDA, the pharmaceutical outfits and the politicians are all peeing in the same pot. The only way this will stop is for WE the SHEEPLE to WAKE the F up and demand a stop.

[Don Corleone]

Another reason to bring on Socialized Medicine. /sarc

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

"Public interest law professor John Banzhaf, whom the media has dubbed a "driving force behind the lawsuits that have cost tobacco companies SMOKERS billions of dollars,"

All costs and fines in addition to legal fees defending lawsuits have been passed on to us smokers, not to mention the Gazillions in Fed, State and other taxes we have paid--much MORE than could ever be considered as a "cost" associated with any perceived "treatment" (WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN DEFINITIVELY PROVEN ANYWAY) to other non-smokers.

Also, it has been widely publicized that we smokers die prematurely as a result of our nasty, disgusting habits.

If so, does it not stand to reason that we are saving even more Bazillions in Social Security benefits not having to be paid?

I would bet that presently, Illegal Aliens are probably costing more in health services than smokers not to mention, the "weight challenged," who are also said to suffer more incidences of diabetes, hypertension, heart conditions, etc.

ENOUGH ALREADY. Either ban it completely or leave us to hell alone!!!

[Shortcake]

From the guidelines:

" Patients unwilling to try to quit tobacco use should be provided with a brief intervention designed to increase their motivation to quit.

One important conclusion of this guideline is that the most effective way to move clinicians to intervene is to provide them with information regarding multiple efficacious treatment options and to ensure that they have ample institutional support to use these options. Indeed, in this guideline, the panel encourages a culture of health care in which failure to treat tobacco use—the chief cause of preventable disease and death—constitutes an inappropriate standard of care."

I found it at:

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/treating_tobacco_use.pdf

Now they are threatening health care providers with lawsuits if they do not act as "Big Brother". How long will it be before doctors begin to refuse to treat smokers as patients, or increase the cost of office visits for smokers? (even for non smoking-related visits)

[metmom]

The letter notes a recent study which shows that physicians are killing more than 40,000 American smokers each year by failing to follow federal guidelines which mandate that the doctor warn the smoking patient about the many dangers of smoking and provide effective medical treatment for the majority who wish to quit.

Oh, what a bunch of crap!

With the huge anti-smoking campaign we've seen in this country, I doubt there's a person out there that knows that smoking isn't good for you. And I'd like to meet a doctor yet who wouldn't be willing to provide some form of treatment for someone who was asking for help quitting.

If the patient doesn't want it, that's their choice. The doctor shouldn't be in a position of having to force it on him.

[Bitsy]

Since physician malpractice kills over 40,000 smokers annually
How many children does abortion kill annually. These idiots should get their priorities straight - oh, but there is no money involved in stopping abortions- I forgot.

[wiggen]

drs, dentists,they all tell me to quit. never had one that didn’t. “the big lie”. place the word malpractice in the story and immediately head to court with nobody questioning whether or not its true.
global warming. asbestoes lawsuits. and on it goes

[ccmay]

Primary care physicians are already being squeezed beyond reason. The Medicare conversion factor (sort of an index to how much the government pays for medical services) was over $38 in 2001. It's now about $34, and due for another 15% cut over the next two years. That's about a 25% pay cut, even before taking inflation into account. In real terms it is approaching a 50% pay cut, and there are certainly more cuts ahead. Private insurance companies typically index their reimbursements to Medicare rates, and will be following them down.

And then there is the issue of malpractice insurance, which has doubled or tripled for many specialties in the past decade. It will increase much, much more if doctors are now to be held liable for their patients' own moral failings. There are already plenty of obstetricians whose malpractice insurance payments exceed their take-home income. This new standard of care would make that the rule for everyone who sees patients.

Your internist or family doc or pediatrician has to move the patients through his office in an average of ten minutes or less. If it goes to fifteen minutes, he makes less money than a bus driver. If it goes to twenty minutes, he goes bankrupt and closes his doors.

If he is now required to take a few minutes at each visit to badger every nicotine junkie or glutton about their lifestyle choices, at the risk of being sued for everything he owns if he fails to change their ways, then I can assure you that a lot of them are going to pack it in for good. Society's expectations of physicians have already gone far beyond the reasonable and are now well into the ludicrous. This organization's proposals would push us into the realm of sheer lunacy.

Here is a cost-benefit analysis of medical school versus driving a UPS truck. The results will surprise you. The outcome is similar for skilled tradesmen like plumbers or auto mechanics. It will soon be the case that nobody would want to go to medical school but Mother Theresa types, and there are precious few of those.

We stand on the verge of dismantling the greatest health care system in the world. The time is fast approaching when women in labor will be routinely delivering on their kitchen floors. Society is soon going to have to choose whether it values physicians more than maniacal scolds like Prof. Banzhaf and greedy lawyer slime like John Edwards. There will be no way to keep both.

-ccm

[VeniVidiVici]

I see they are a graduate of the Spitzer School of Shakedowns and Blackmail.

Wonder if they take the same position on providing medical information on abortions?