Healthcare from a diffrent prespective... from a convo with the wife...

[fightingquaker13]

Actually tort reform is exactly the wrong place to start. The lawyers are not the problem. Its greedy insurance companies and bad doctors. Let me explain. Full disclosure: this is based on a few articles I read in public policy journals more than a decade ago to prep a lecture for a Con law class so I have neither cites not current info. Still, it is what it is.
The problem is this, less than 15% of doctors accumulate the vast majority of suits. In some cases its due to their specialty, like OB/GYN which generates a lot of suits as stuff happens and no one wants to here that. In others though, its the same doctors getting sued over and over again. Yet the insurance companies don't drop them. Why? Because its more profitable to raise EVERY doctors bills by sayng we paid out x millions in insurance last year. They get it past state insurance commissions this way. Bad doctors are good for business. Its the same type of reasoning that Ford execs got on caught on tape with, saying it was cheaper to pay death claims then recall the Pinto. The medical community is equally to blame. They don't police their own and no one else is qualified to. Who of us can tell an honest mistake from an act of negligence except in the most extreme cases?  Lawyers, whatever their faults, do a pretty good job of this. The Bar Ethics counsel is a serious and scary thing. Lawyers are routinely fined, suspended and disbarred. The AMA doesn't come close. The tend to circle the wagons around their own. Thus the problem docs stay employed, we suffer and the insurance companies get fat.
FQ13

[Timothy]

I also feel your pain.....the girl that hit me had the state required minimum of 25k liability.......and didn't have a pot to piss in so a lawsuit was useless. My health insurance found a third party loophole and bailed on my bills.....leaving me owing a ton...but hey, I'm alive and that's what's important.

Once again Chuck, you bring me back to reality.... I suppose I sounded a little bitter earlier but my troubles pale in comparison to some. 
My employers insurance carrier treated me very well and went out of their way to find ways to cover 98% of my medical costs but they also took a third of my settlement.  I just managed to pay off the last bit this year.  The Auto insurance was a "bucket of suck" and like Peg, they guy only had the state minimum for RI.  I keep a million dollar rider on mine now so that if I ever hit someone, THEY will make out better than I did!  Nice guy huh?  Any of you that still ride, make sure your policy has "Personal Injury Protection Insurance" (PIP) which covers the rider, otherwise your left to the same thing Chuck and I went through....

One little thing that got me through.......every check I wrote to the Surgeons office for services rendered, I wrote "Bite ME! or some other such rude comment on the memo line!  Just a little payback for the pain and suffering!  My wife still give's me grief about that!

[Hazcat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRvtWEG_vhQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fboortz%2Ecom%2Fnealz%5Fnuze%2F2009%2F08%2Fok%2Dnow%2Ddont%2Dgo%2Daway%2Dyet%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded

[PegLeg45]

One little thing that got me through.......every check I wrote to the Surgeons office for services rendered, I wrote "Bite ME! or some other such rude comment on the memo line!  Just a little payback for the pain and suffering!  My wife still give's me grief about that!

I will remember that one.   That's good.    





As a note, guys, please don't think that I am trying to 'one-up' anybody by talking about my own experiences. I don't want anyone to think I had it worse than someone else.....just different. I guess it could be misconstrued as that by some the way it reads in print.
We've all went through tough times at some point. I just hope some folks can learn from others past experiences, whether good or bad.

[Rastus]

Why are doctors getting a break?  So they will love Big Brother.  Big Brother needs his doctors right now so they are his friend.

Big Brother needs them on his side so they will support his socialization of our nation.

Yes TAB, it is wrong.  Since everyone wants some type of socialization, it makes sense that since lawyers are technicians of the law they should be restricted from making unlimited amounts of money in aggregate if they are licensed practitioners of the law who are able to create laws to benefit themselves...which they do.  That's some really nice offices, cars, homes, vacations and toys they have....let's tax the lawyers...50% over 200k, 99 percent over 250k, 110 percent over 300k and their three year average income cannot be over 150 k or they must pay a 100k penalty...tax the money from all sources no deductions allowed.  So much for ambulance chasers and fancy congressman....now they must do something productive or hold their hand out for welfare, either will work.

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