Posted on 08/23/2009 6:00:07 PM PDT by parsifal
interesting
Hey, it came straight from the doctor’s mouth. Think about it. A doctor can order some tests, blame it on a lawyer, while he keeps the money. Talk about a scam.
The point was, they had tort reform in Texas and the doctors still kept ordering the tests.
parsy, who says blame the doctors
I suggest you have a read of this article.
I've worked alongside doctors for many years, and there isn't one of them picturing the courtroom at the end of the tunnel with a lawyer stating, "But Doctor, you failed to use the machine that went PING, which as you know could have prevented your patient from dying!" Or, "Doctor, you failed to diagnose antidisestablishmentarianism in this patient, when the hospital had just installed a new machine that goes PING that would have diagnosed her injury."
Whether the threat is real or not, the patients think it is, the doctors think it is, and malpractice insurance costs drop dramatically in areas that enact tort reform.
Your overzealous defense of trial lawyers as all good and doctors as evil money grubbers just reeks of our current administration in Washington. Lawyers outnumber doctors in Congress probably on the order of 50 to 100 to 1. So whose benefit do you think they side with?
I read your link. Oh, God help us. Now the BS has spread to Hawaii. You might want to review some of the links I have provided above. They will give you a clearer picture of the situation.
parsy, who says and another one might bite the dust
I boo-boo’ed. This link was not above. Real good summary of the situation.
http://insurance-reform.org/TrueRiskF.pdf.
parsy, who is trying to stay awake
How would you have any clue what their motivations are?
I sure hope with your attitude that you don't actually get sick some day.
The advantage to the people in Indiana consists primarily of a lot of new hospitals, a plentitude of doctors with special skills available 24/7, and lower medical insurance and out of pocket health care costs.
The folks in Chicago still get their care, but they also get to see a lot of Northern Indiana countryside first! ~ oh, yes, and fewer visitors ~ it's a kind of long drive.
You are wrong. In some cases the cap on pain and suffering is $750,000. Tort reform was intended to increase access to health care. It succeeded in that. We have added doctors in Texas at nation-leading, record rates. More importantly, we have signicantly added doctors in high risk areas of practice and in geographical areas doctors were avoiding because of the malpractice plague. If it is true that Texas health care rates have risen drastically, that would be driven by the huge increase in uninnsureds in our state. Fortunately, because of tort reform, Texas providers have been able to successfully take on the burden of a huge increase in charity care.
We do continue to have instances of medical negligence. Those claims are paid. What we don’t see is a barrage of lawsuits from patients or family members who are unhappy with a medical outcome even though there has been no malpractice.
Gary??! It’s been a long time since I lived in the area but wow! I grew up in Southwest Michigan and drove to Chicago fairly frequently passing through the smoke of Gary. You could smell the place 10 miles before you reached it.
Here is an interesting link on the issue. It is very long and I have not gone all the way thru it myself, yet. There may be problems, but I do not think it can all be blamed on greedy lawyers. But on the other hand.....apparently the insurance company’s lawyers were stringing out the suits and stalling them so they could run up their own legal bills before making settlement offers.
This is a 2003 hearing.
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house/pdf/108hrg/86045.pdf
Other things I have read indicate that is a combination of high malpractice insurance rates coupled with a low rate of reimbursment from the health insurance companies, in addition to other factors.
Whatever, this is not as simplistic as some would make it.
parsy, who will try to read thru the whole hearing when he has more time.
You might want to read the links to get a better understanding of the situation. “Doctors good-lawyers bad” doesn’t really take into account the reality of the situation.
And, a whole big bunch of doctors have sprawling mansions, and mistresses and a net worth of God knows what.
parsy, who says you really ought to read the links
I would have to admit that a “We want your business so bad, we don’t care if you kill and injure a lot of people” attitude could be great for business.
Maybe Indiana could put that on their license tags, and run a few commercials. Maybe some ads in the Wall Street Journal, too.
After all, the taxpayers can always pick up the pieces.
parsy, who says to each his own
Read this link:
http://www.saynotocaps.org/newsarticles/baby%20i%20lied.htm
Then, if Texas has just become the “Garden of Eden” of health care, why are your health care costs skyrocketing? The third fastest rise in the nation?
I thought “tort reform” was going to fix all that.
parsy, the sarcastic
You do recall the bad old days when "rural and small town America" was running short of doctors who didn't care to work in such places for peanuts?
Indiana was one of the first states to come up with a way to attract doctors ~ pay their student loans!
Ended the problem there. Then Doc Bowen became Governor and he solved the problem probably forever. Cities like Gary Indiana could never hope to attract physicians to fill a large first class hospital ~ yet they snatched the business away from Chicago with a cap on malpractice claims. That brings down the insurance costs for ALL the doctors!
Remember, it's not just the guys charged with malpractice who get hit, it's ALL doctors who have to pay premiums.
I haven't checked to see if there was an increase in death rates for Indiana lawyers in surgical suites, but maybe? You can find it for us.
I just got to thinking. I’m from Arkansas. Maybe you need to hear from a Texan about the Texas, the new “Garden of Eden” in health care.
You see, that’s the problem. You take away people’s rights, AND you don’t solve any problems. Which means that you have wasted your time chasing wild gooses, while the costs keep going up. A little research on the front end would be nice.
parsy, who thinks you may enjoy this
By lowering the cost of taking risks by using advanced techniques and methods, and modern medicines, Texas should have seen an increase in the cost of medical care ~ the best stuff always costs more!
Today that same smokey place is where the rich people in Chicago go to have their hearts reconfigured
You won’t be able to find it. The medical community covers up a lot of malpractice. The caps make it economically unfeasible to pursue the claims often. But what the hey, medicare, welfare, food stamps, etc. can pick up the tab.
parsy, who tries to look on the bright side.
I said 5, right? That's 4 ~ the largest states in the union too.
#5 is usually Indiana, which is usually down toward the middle in terms of population. Their additional value added comes from Illinois, Michigan and Ohio ~ and to a degree Canada.
I noticed that the only serious lawsuits against the Mayo Clinic are currently in Illinois courts. The "injured" think they can sue Mayo, that does not provide services in Illinois. One of 'em found a federal court to back him on a procedural problem.
The deal is these people went to Minnesota, didn't get what they wanted, but they can't win in Minnesota courts so they're suing in Illinois courts because they know they can win.
This is Obama's world ~ just in case anyone thought we can get tort reform while he's in office.
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