The Medical Malpractice Myths

[Toronado3800]

Tort reform....what a crazy liberal idea. Nowhere in the Constitution did the founding fathers give the Federal government the power to limit the monetary punishments the judicial system could apply.

Now I suppose all powers not granted to the Federal government were left to the states. So I image the big brother state of Missouri can tell me what my left leg is worth if the doctor messes up and takes the wrong one.

Does anyone have a number for the amount of money paid for malpractice insurance total in 200?? Then we can decide what percentage of cost it was.

 

[uscitizen]

I can say this. A good friend of mine, a surgeon, has never had a claim against him of any sort. His malpractice insurance is 350,000 per year alone. You have to see a hell of a lot of patients to make that little number up. Add to that all the other costs of running a practice and it becomes quite clear why many are no longer following a medical career.
One other thing to consider, most malpractice occurs in the hospital. The AMA has calculated that 100,000 people die every year due to some form of malpractice so it is a serious problem, however at some point you have to ask yourself, if the Dr. was negligent why is he still in medicine? At some point there has to be an effort made to get rid of the bad ones (including sending some of them to jail) instead of repeatedly going back to the trough as the vast majority of lawyers will do.

Ahh now you are getting at a real thing that can be done to reduce malpractice ins costs. Kick out the bad doctors. This semi honor system we have for policing doctors does not seem to work very well.

I watched a show once where they did a study of infections gotten by patients while in the hospital and the workers all said they wahsed their hands between patients, etc. Well cameras were installed and proved that they did not do nearly as good of a job at hand washing as they thought. Changes were implemented and gut infections and such by 80%. Just by enforcing hand sanitizing.

 

[emedmal]

You are exactly right! Doctors should police their own medical malpractice insurance and then they wouldn't have to raise their hourly rate.

 

[strollingbones]

doctors do not police themselves...and hospitals cover up for poor doctors as do insurance companies that settle with no tell clauses....allowing a bad doctor to keep practicing on the unsuspecting public....

 

[geauxtohell]

Tort reform....what a crazy liberal idea. Nowhere in the Constitution did the founding fathers give the Federal government the power to limit the monetary punishments the judicial system could apply.

Now I suppose all powers not granted to the Federal government were left to the states. So I image the big brother state of Missouri can tell me what my left leg is worth if the doctor messes up and takes the wrong one.

Does anyone have a number for the amount of money paid for malpractice insurance total in 200?? Then we can decide what percentage of cost it was.

You can dig it up, but the percentage is generally agreed to be 3% of the whole.

 

[Toronado3800]

So lets say if it is 3% of the expenses it raises costs by 6%? Thats a little bit. 6k on a 100k surgery. Not the type of math which will fix the 'no one wants to just die quietly when there is only new super expensive treatment available' problem.

 

[MizMolly]

While malpractice insurance is high, doctors have to be responsible when they make mistakes. Reminds me of vehicle insurance, a teenager pays higher just for being a teenager, regardless of their good driving record. Even though the doctors have high premiums, I have never known a doctor to live in a low rent area or drive a cheap vehicle. They still do well financially. Like any career...if you don't like it, find another occupation.