Doctors' careers on life support

Washington Times ^ | 9/1/03 | Tom Ramstack

[friendly]

We have been warned. Will we listen?

[Sir Gawain]

Old people don't care. They just want their drugs. They want them now and they want them free!

No surprises when the hippies get old.

[friendly]

"Free"... ya gets what ya pays for!

[Prof Engineer]

Sure is going to be tough for doctors to make house calls from India.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Revenge of the lawyers. When I was growing up, your mother wanted you to be a doctor (or marry one). Lawyers did OK, and dentists were respectable. I guess the lawyers didn't like that--a generation of effort has put them on top. Doctors are taking a pounding -- super long training (med school plus internship plus residency), very high debts, and now very high insurance costs and red tape.

Dentists seem to be doing OK now, too.

[y2k_free_radical]

Many old folks are just as selfish as the young

[gas_dr]

No, the answer is clearly people will not listen. Here in Florida, a feeble cap was passed, and the lawyers are already suing to stop it in the name of the people. Remember, non-economic caps means pain and suffering which translates in the the lawyer payoff. We will still pay all your medical and wage loss expenses if we commit malpractice.

I fear that in the oncoming years, people will have to call their attorney for the life saving treatment, as we will all have left medicine because frankly it is not worth the rik to my family to continue to practice a high risk specialty in this era...

[friendly]

Dentists ALWAYS do OK. In Israel and Europe, they do much better than MDs since their practices are generally free of the socialists.

[friendly]

Every doc I speak to is doing everything in their power to avoid high risk patients (translation: really sick people). They hate it but have absolutely no choice if they are to avoid higher insurance rates.

[Held_to_Ransom]

It is interesting to note that the country that pays the least per capita for modern health care in Europe is France. Naturally, the country with the average longest life span is also France......

[nmh]

IF competent doctors would acknowlege rather than cover-up for the INcompetent doctors then they wouldn't have such outrageous malpractice insurance.

[Steve Eisenberg]

We have been warned. Will we listen?

Not too likely. According to a recent Philadelphia Magazine article (no free web access),Pennsylvania hand surgeons widely refuse to pay the extra malpractice premium for emergency room practice. Therefore if I was to injure my hand in a way requiring immediate attention, a resident would have to do his best.

The obvious (to me) answer: Have patients who want it pay for protection against medical error. I would gladly accept that my family won't be compensated for mistakes our all too human doctors and nurses may make in return for lower medical insurance premiums and medicare taxes. Under the current system, the litigious majority is sponging off the rest of us.

[Steve Eisenberg]

P.S. on my last post:

The proposal I just made would, alas, require a new government regulation. Malpractice premiums should be reduced by the proportion of a doc's patients who agree not to sue. Also, I meant to say the litigious MINORITY, although, who knows, nowadays they may be a majority.

[tomahawk]

This country is going down (I hate to say).

[rmmcdaniell]

IF competent doctors would acknowlege rather than cover-up for the INcompetent doctors then they wouldn't have such outrageous malpractice insurance.

Let me guess, your a lawyer?

[friendly]

You are grotesquely misinformed: The countries in Europe with the greatest longevity are Andorra (#1 in the world), San Marino, and Switzerland. France has astronomical health care costs.

France also french fries its elderly by refusing them health care in its pathetic hospital and ER system, then sending these sick old folks home to die in their little hot apartments. Please read your local paper at some time, before making silly posts.

[friendly]

IF competent doctors would acknowlege rather than cover-up for the INcompetent doctors then they wouldn't have such outrageous malpractice insurance.

Uninformed, moronic, and pathetic.

[gas_dr]

The reason that many are curtailing their high risk is that the attorneys have successfully convinced people that bad outcomes are malpractice. That is not the truth. Especially in sick patients, bad outcomes happen becaus of the nature of the disease, not because of malpractice. The time is coming where emergency service will be delayed or unavailable because it is too big a risk. The time is coming that truly sick people will not be seen -- to big a risk again. What then? The lawyers will sue us for not seeing patients? No, the majority of MD's will leave if that happens. Socialized? Again, the majority of us will leave if that happens. Like I said before, lawyers had better learn to practice medicine pretty damn fast...

[Bonaparte]

"Will we listen?"

Of course not. Everybody wants something for nothing and the trial lawyers call the shots. As medicine declines, it will take down all the associated jobs with it. The good part is that the unions that control those jobs will die too.

[gas_dr]

IF competent doctors would acknowlege rather than cover-up for the INcompetent doctors then they wouldn't have such outrageous malpractice insurance.

If you are going to level this outrageous charge, back it up with facts. Otherwise get a life or get a clue...