My Cousin is so Happy Health Care Passed

[skarke]

Black Eagle,

I have worked my entire career in the medical industry. I understand your point about MP Insurance rates, however, the cost of liability goes way beyond the rate of insurance.  Consider the following:

1.  Excessive CYA behavior for virtually everything manufacturers produce in the US.  Why do so many corporations choose to manufacture elsewhere? Tort exposure by all accounts is a major contributing factor.
2.  The bankruptcy of Owens Corning is a classic case of tort abuse. There has never been ANY scientific evidence that silicone implants cause any of the alleged conditions for which the plantiffs sued.  All a good tort lawyer needs to do it travel to Hidalgo County Texas, find a sympathetic jury that is generally ignorant, parade a few sad sacks in front of them crying and gnashing teeth, and voila, some corporation is found liable.
3.  Insurance is just a tiny portion of the costs associated with tort abuse in this country.  It is at the forefront of the collapse of our capitalist system.  With contingency fees abound, many unscrupulous people look at it like playing the lottery.  Why not?  The cost is nothing, but the reward can be enormous.


I'll leave you with this parting shot.  I used to work in Texas City, Texas.  One day one of the plants had a large ammonia coolant leak. Within minutes, our ER was flooded with patients.  We were perplexed at how many people seemed to be suffering from ammonia inhalation, given that the leak was contained quickly.

Then it hit us.  You couldn't find a bottle of household ammonia on any shelf in the city within two hours of the leak.  It seems that people figured, why the hell not.

Of course, the ambulance chasers had their billboards up within days, and I'm positive that the class action suit paid for those 60c bottles of household ammonia many times over.

It is a culture problem, systemic to afailing society.  I vote we just sue the crap oout of every remaining corporation in America that makes anything, and lets all borrow off of the chinese until they cut the umbilical.  It is coming boys.

[rberglof]

 It hasn't passed yet the house and senate has to agree on final bill and pass it in both house and senate then has to be signed by Obama, they do believe they can fast track it by omitting the Republicans from the process.

[Redhawk1]

Redhawk, Yeah, I am a lawyer and the bills are very easy to understand if you read them carefully.

I do favor tort reform although the numbers cited here are wrong.  Medical malpractice insurance adds anywhere from 3% [a general practitioner in Oklahoma] to a max of 12% [some specialties in New York and California] to the cost of medical care depending on which state you live in.  How do I know that?  For a few years I worked for the med mal insurance companies as a defense lawyer and the med mal carriers run these numbers all the time. [I quit doing these cases because the med mal carriers only pay their lawyers between $200 and $250 an hour. I make twice that defending lawyers and judges.]

There is so much misinformation floating around about damned near everything on the internet and on the news, including health care, that Americans are notoriously misinformed about almost everything. But, I don't mind. Sometimes that misinformation works for me in trials. For example, I used to love it back in the days when I defended medical mal cases and a few potential jurors would tell me, during voir dire, that medical malpractice premiums were raising the cost of medical care out of sight. Those are the jurors I wanted on my cases when I was defending some doc and I never ever argued with those potential jurors. That misinformation made my job much easier.  

Wow another Collage Educated man that likes this health care bill. Unbelievable.

If the health care bill is so good, why does over 64% of the Americans not want it? Why is it that the new bill has to change 100% of a system, that has a problem with only 15% of it?

Don't you think it would be easier to just fix the 15%, than to revamp the whole system? It is just a way for the Government to take control, it is a power grab.

If this Government just went after Medicare fraud, they would have the money to give health care to the 15% of the people not covered. Also do  tort reform, so Doctors will not have to pass the buck to the consumer.

Wow that was easy. But I guess all them Collage Educated Lawyers in the White house could not figure that out. What a joke Obama and his panty waste Congress are.

[skarke]

It is precisely the lack of competition in the healthcare marketplace that has driven costs through the roof.  If, for instance, individuals were at risk for the first 5K of medical bills, and they could keep the money if they didn't spend it, then EVERY consumer would be asking "what is that test for, is it necessary?"  Instead, because doctors want to eliminate any possibility of missing something for fear of being sued, coupled with the fact that the more procedures they run, the more money they make, we have the opposite of free markets.  We have, as TM7 describes, a gool ol' boy system.

Put people back in the drivers seat.  Give them all 5k that they must spend before insurance kicks in, let them keep it if they don't, and let the bidding begin.

No, tort exposure drives much of the medical decisions, and over use, in America.  Add to that declining reimbursement for procedures forcing doctors to increase volume of activity to drive income, and you have monopolistic behavior. Humans err, that doesn't mean that they are negligent, just imperfect.  Babys die, people die, doctors aren't machine perfect, so let's sue them all so that they will discover that plumbing pays better, screw medical school.

[skarke]

BTW, the average person could pay doctor bills out of the family budget prior to WW II, because there was no such thing as Medical Insurance, Medicare, caid, or any other bastardization of free markets.  If the costs were too high for an individual to receive necessary treatment, the Hospitals had charitable organizations backing them.  Just look at the Medical Center in Houston.  St. Lukes, Methodist, St. Joseph's, etc...  That's what the Church is for (back when people weren't so stingy that they wouldn't tithe).

Sure, there were gaps and huge holes, but much more easily fixed than the disaster that is about to befall us.

[gypsyman]

Quote Shakespeare: Kill all the lawyers!  gypsyman