Ya ever think that the reason our healthcare is so expensive is because of lawsuits?

[NYcarbineer]

1. So medical malpractice insurance and claims cost represent about 2% of healthcare costs overall

2. So if you did the impossible, which would be to eliminate ALL costs associated with malpractice insurance, you would save 2% on your annual healthcare bills, BUT

3. that assumes another impossibility, which is that doctors and insurance companies, etc., would pass ALL of the savings along to you. That of course wouldn't happen. Doctors don't want lower malpractice insurance costs in order to give you a smaller bill...

...they want it so they can buy a bigger boat.

Use your heads people.

 

[strollingbones]

no, not really, since it is not true

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I'm suggesting that we need a Loser Pay Med Mal system in the USA

If a doctor accidentally replaces your brain with a baboon's, you should sue and be compensated because no one should have to live like a USMB Liberal poster

 

[Vanquish]

Another conservative stereotype debunked. Tort reform is bullshit.

 

[uscitizen]

Ya ever think that the reason our healthcare is so expensive is because of lawsuits?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nope, from all studies I have read malpractice lawsuits add maybe around 4% to the cost of healthcare.
And since it typically rises in double digits per year.

Did anyone notice the cost of healthcare dropping during the recession when most other things dropped?

 

[NYcarbineer]

Another conservative stereotype debunked. Tort reform is bullshit.

Tort reform! is the Republican way of saying we don't have any plan for healthcare, but maybe no one will notice if we make a lawyer joke for a cheap laugh.

 

[Greenbeard]

I'm suggesting that we need a Loser Pay Med Mal system in the USA

If by "in the USA" you mean you're advocating for a federalization of tort law, you're going to run into opposition from far right lawmakers:

At a Judiciary Committee markup, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) accused Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) of proposing legislation that would violate the Constitution.

The panel was considering legislation sponsored by Gingrey, who does not sit on the committee and was not present, that would impose a $250,000 cap on non-economic medical malpractice damages. Poe, a former felony court judge and a member of the House Tea Party Caucus, said that violates the Constitution.

He also warned he'd vote against the measure if it imposes caps on states that don't want them.

"I got problems with that," Poe said. "I think it's a violation of the Tenth Amendment."

[...]

[Lamar] Smith, who has made tort reform one of his top five priorities, defended the law, saying tort reform falls under the purview of the Constitution's Commerce Clause.

"If Alabama and New York want to be a haven for malpractice suits, it's great for Texas," said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). "I'm reticent to allow Congress to impose our will on the states."

And from the states:

A bipartisan association of state lawmakers is urging House Republicans to abandon efforts to overhaul the nation’s medical liability laws — the most prominent piece so far of the GOP's efforts to replace the Democrats' 2010 healthcare law.

The states — and not the federal government — should decide on medical malpractice standards, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) wrote to House members this week.

“The adoption of a one-size-fits-all approach to medical malpractice envisioned in H.R. 5 and other related measures would undermine that diversity and disregard factors unique to each particular states,” the NCSL wrote to the House Energy and Commerce health subpanel.

And from other allies on the right:

Georgetown University law professor Randy Barnett accused the GOP of practicing “fair-weather federalism” on the malpractice bill, which would preempt state laws that conflict with its cap on some jury awards.

Barnett represents the National Federation of Independent Business in its lawsuit challenging the healthcare law’s requirement that most people buy insurance. Opponents of the malpractice bill say those conservative bona fides lend credibility to his criticism.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Ya ever think that the reason our healthcare is so expensive is because of lawsuits?

No....that's STILL.....

....BULLSHIT....

.....like pretty-much anything ELSE....

....Butterball Beck tells you!!

 

[Mr. Shaman]

We're the only county in the world that encourages malpractice lawyers to launch predatory lawsuits against our healthcare system.

You ever stop and think that maybe one way to lower Healthcare costs is to institute a "Loser Pays" System, this way a doctor does not have six months of his practice go to pay his malpractice insurance?

So funny how you guys bring up an argument, we debunk it, you move on to another lie, we debunk that, and then eventually you come back to the same lies.

Lawsuits add up to 1/2 of 1% of the total costs of healthcare. Ed Schultz squashed this last night and about a week ago. And consider that most of the lawsuits are legitimate. So what percent are frivilous? Does that add up to $1 billion? Not even worth discussing now. Lets get a great public option in place first, get the costs lowered, and then down the road we can deal with tort reform.

PS. You are only hurting yourself with this. Rich people and corporations will always have access to the best laywers. Secretly, they love lawyers. What they are pushing for with this is they want their doctors and corporations to be able to kill or injure you and pay very little when it happens. Is that wise? How much is your life worth?

Sealy,

Do you have a link to back that up?

Immie

Here......

.....have one o' MINE!!!

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Is it possible, to be more-stupid, than....​

....a "conservative"??!!!!

*

“Who says I don’t have insurance right now?”​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

As usual.....China is showing more common-sense (regarding The Future), than your.....​

....average "conservative".​

"Most rich countries choose to finance their healthcare publicly for several reasons.

China, on the other hand, provides a sobering example of the consequences of withdrawing publicly financed health insurance. In the early 1980s, market reforms left roughly 100 million rural citizens without insurance, almost overnight. Out-of-pocket costs skyrocketed, infant mortality rates stopped declining and the disease surveillance system was weakened, which may have contributed to the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, which took more than 900 lives worldwide and caused economic losses worth an estimated $60 billion. The Chinese government has acknowledged that the reforms were a flop, and has committed to spending several billion dollars on publicly financed health care.

Healthcare costs in the US are exorbitant, with low value for money. One can only hope that "Obamacare", together with the models being implemented by the future competitors of the US, will nudge the US to adopt a long overdue universal, publicly financed healthcare system."

 

[clevergirl]

Lawsuits are low due to this, if you take all lawsuits filed;not even won; and put it against the money that healthcare costs,it is less than 3%, I did the figures just a month or so ago but Ed Schultz gets facts wrong too.

It's not merely the lawsuits- but the increased cost to physicians; nurses, healthcare workers to practice medicine otherwise known as malpractice insurance.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Lawsuits are low due to this, if you take all lawsuits filed;not even won; and put it against the money that healthcare costs,it is less than 3%, I did the figures just a month or so ago but Ed Schultz gets facts wrong too.

It's not merely the lawsuits- but the increased cost to physicians; nurses, healthcare workers to practice medicine otherwise known as malpractice insurance.

"President Obama at a recent town hall meeting said he wants to reduce doctors’ insurance premiums, but that, based on his conversations with health care experts, “the evidence at least is that that is a very small, maybe not even a measurable factor in the reason that health care costs are going up.”

“He gets it,” said Baker.

Although damage award caps could slightly limit the future growth of liability insurance premiums – about 6 to 13 percent over time, says Mello, “it tends to be oversold as a solution and it’s pretty unfair to patients.”

​

 

[clevergirl]

Lawsuits are low due to this, if you take all lawsuits filed;not even won; and put it against the money that healthcare costs,it is less than 3%, I did the figures just a month or so ago but Ed Schultz gets facts wrong too.

It's not merely the lawsuits- but the increased cost to physicians; nurses, healthcare workers to practice medicine otherwise known as malpractice insurance.

"President Obama at a recent town hall meeting said he wants to reduce doctors’ insurance premiums, but that, based on his conversations with health care experts, “the evidence at least is that that is a very small, maybe not even a measurable factor in the reason that health care costs are going up.”

“He gets it,” said Baker.

Although damage award caps could slightly limit the future growth of liability insurance premiums – about 6 to 13 percent over time, says Mello, “it tends to be oversold as a solution and it’s pretty unfair to patients.”

​

Malpractice insurance has gone up 50% for neurosurgeons and obstetricians alone... about 100k per year-

Doctors flock to Texas after tort reform lowers
malpractice insurance... yeah there's no connection whatsoever- /sarcasm

Not to worry though, liberals will still find a way to bureaucratically slow down any kind of real reform- it's as predicable as a morning bowel movement.

 

[Greenbeard]

Doctors flock to Texas after tort reform lowers
malpractice insurance... yeah there's no connection whatsoever- /sarcasm

Texas passed its malpractice reforms in 2003.

Between 2003 and 2010, single and family health insurance premiums in the state rose 46 and 52 percent, respectively. By comparison, the average rise in single and family premiums over this time period was 42 and 50 percent, respectively. As a percent of the median household income in the state, average health insurance premiums in Texas are higher than those in Massachusetts; they also compare unfavorably to the national numbers.

Meanwhile, health expenditures in the state rose by 49% between 2003 and 2009 (this is even faster than Massachusetts' 44.5% increase in spending over this period and MA expanded to almost universal health insurance coverage during this period, while Texas has the worst coverage numbers in the United States). The national average increase in health spending over this period was 41.3%.

I'm less than impressed with their performance since 2003.

edit/ A few more numbers. As of 2008, Texas ranked 42nd in the nation in terms of physicians per 10,000 people (civilian population). They're also 43rd in registered nurses per 100,000 (as of 2010), 48th in terms of total nurse practitioners per 100,000 (as of 2010) 37th in terms of physician assistants per 100,000 (as of 2010). If you look at the specialty numbers (as of Feb 2012), it looks like they've got about 6.5% over the nation's specialists. Texas has about eight and half percent of the nation's population, but perhaps those specialist numbers are impressive given how awful their coverage/access numbers are.

 

[Zander]

There is not even one job I trust the government to do better than the private sector.

 

[Gadawg73]

There is not one state that has passed tort reform LIMITING the rights of the injured that has seen a decrease in health care costs.
Fact is all that has increased is doctor's negligence, insurance companies reserves and profits.
Limiting the injured to certain monetary amounts is against everything this nation was founded on and is a slap in the face to the very foundation of that, the jury system.