Free Republic

Supporters of medical malpractice/lawsuit reform routinely cite the plight of high medical malpractice insurance for border doctors in making their case. No one disputes the problem. But addressing medical malpractice is not likely to fix a bigger problem facing border doctors: too many Medicaid and CHIP patients and not enough commercial or private pay patients. In El Paso, the patient mix runs heavy on uninsured and government-sponsored health insurance programs, such as Medicaid (for low income), CHIP (for children) and Medicare (seniors). According to a Community Scholars study using government data, the 2000 insurance mix for El Paso was 35...